Phase transition in exotic nuclei along the $N=Z$ line

Hasegawa, M.; Kaneko, K.; Mizusaki, T.; Sun, Y.

Phase transition in exotic nuclei along the $N=Z$ line

Authors

Description

The abrupt structure change from the nuclei of $N=Z \le 35$ to those of $N=Z \ge 36$ is investigated by means of shell model calculations. The basic features of the even-even and odd-odd nuclei under consideration are nicely reproduced. A sudden jump of nucleons into the upper $g_{9/2}d_{5/2}$ shell at $N=Z=36$ is found to be the main reason that causes the qualitative structure difference. It is argued that the structure change can be viewed as a decisive change of the mean field, or a phase transition, along the $N=Z$ line.
4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett