Application of the Bohr Hamiltonian with a double-well sextic potential to collective states in Mo isotopes

Abstract

A diagonalization procedure for an SO(5) invariant Bohr Hamiltonian with a sextic potential for the β shape variable, having simultaneous spherical and deformed minima, is presented. The double-well potential allows for the study of shape coexistence and mixing phenomena from a geometrical perspective. The spectral and dynamical features of the model are investigated for different shapes of the potential amended with the centrifugal contribution from the kinetic term and subjected to the condition of degenerate minima. A generalization of the model is applied for the description of the low-lying energy spectra and shape mixing evolution in Mo nuclei. For each isotope, a shape transition from small to large deformation is found to occur between distinct states with various degrees of intensity and shape mixing.