Extending the region of triaxial superdeformation: candidate TSD bands in 174Hf

Beyond band termination in157Er and the search for wobbling excitations in strongly deformed174Hf

“…Despite the higher level of statistics compared with our previous thin target experiment [16], linking transitions between SD bands (which would be indicative of wobbling) in 174 Hf could not be identified. Four new, presumably strongly deformed, bands were also found in 174 Hf but once again no linking transitions between the bands were observed.…”

“…In 174 Hf four bands with large moments of inertia were identified, suggesting that they were strongly deformed (SD) [16]. Ultimate cranker (UC) calculations indicated that such structures may exist in TSD minima.…”

Calculation of triaxial superdeformation in 174Hf

“…By comparing the proton shell correction energy with the neutron shell correction energy, the latter has greater effect on the minimum A because of its higher energy, which is responsible to more neutrons in 174 Hf and is similar to Lu isotopes that have been studied generally. [13] respectively. We can see that four total potential energy surfaces are similar to the core routhian surface in Figure 1.…”

“…It has been reported that over 20 triaxial superdeformation bands were found in Lu, the typical element [6][7][8][9] . Many triaxial superdeformation bands have also been found in Hf isotopes--the neighbour of Lu: three in 168 Hf [10] , two in 170 Hf [11,12] , four in 174 Hf [13] , and two in 175 Hf [14] .…”

“…By further theory calculation, two new gaps were found in the region N = 100 and 106 (Figure 4 in ref. [13]). The occurrence of new gaps due to the downsloping of higher j orbits was responsible for the find of TSD bands in this region.…”