Nuclear Structure Investigations of Even–Even Hf Isotopes

Abstract

The mass region of rare-earth nuclei in the nuclear chart is riddled with well-deformed nuclei, exhibiting rotational properties and many interesting nuclear structure-related phenomena. The scarcity of experimental data as the neutron number increases and the exotic phenomena such as shape coexistence, which are strongly connected with the underlying symmetries of the Hamiltonian and are predicted to take place in this region, make this mass region a fertile ground for experimental and theoretical studies of nuclear structure. In this work, we investigate the structure of the even–even 162–184Hf (hafnium) isotopes through a calculation of various observables such as B(E2;01+→21+) reduced transition matrix elements and quadrupole moments. Six different nuclear models are employed in the calculations of the observables for these nuclei, the shapes of which deviate from spherical symmetry, and as such, are characterized by Hamiltonians, which break the rotational invariance of the exact nuclear many-body Hamiltonian. The results of the present study are expected to establish some concrete guidelines for current and future experimental endeavors. Along these lines, the results for the 162–180Hf isotopes are compared with existing experimental data where available, showing an overall good agreement.

Keywords

• even–even Hf isotopes
• theoretical models
• quadrupole moments
• <i>B</i>(<i>E</i>2) transition rates