Beta decay studies and search for octupole deformation in the A ∼ 225 Po-Fr nuclei

Abstract

In the landscape of nuclear shapes, dominated by reflection-symmetric forms leading to either spherical or axially deformed arrangements, the occurrence of asymmetric pear-like nuclei has long been searched for. Evidence for static octupole deformation has only been found in selective areas of the nuclear chart, in the mass regions A ∼ 222 and A ∼ 146, the so-called “Islands of Octupole Deformation” (IOD). This paper is focused on β decay studies in the Po-Fr nuclei in the 220 ≤ A ≤ 230 island of octupole deformation exploiting the FRS+DESPEC setup at GSI in Spring 2021. The experimental setup and the analysis techniques employed to perform this study are here shown and discussed, together with preliminary results from the on-going analysis.