Ground-state and pairing-vibrational bands with equal quadrupole collectivity inXe124

Abstract

The nuclear structure of $^{124}\mathrm{Xe}$ has been investigated via measurements of the ${\ensuremath{\beta}}^{+}$/EC decay of $^{124}\mathrm{Cs}$ with the $8\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray spectrometer at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility. The data collected have enabled branching ratio measurements of weak, low-energy transitions from highly excited states, and the ${2}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{0}^{+}$ in-band transitions have been observed. Combining these results with those from a previous Coulomb excitation study, $B(E2;{2}_{3}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{0}_{2}^{+})=78(13)$ W.u. and $B(E2;{2}_{4}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{0}_{3}^{+})=53(12)$ W.u. were determined. The ${0}_{3}^{+}$ state, in particular, is interpreted as the main fragment of the proton-pairing vibrational band identified in a previous $^{122}\mathrm{Te}$($^{3}\mathrm{He},n$)$^{124}\mathrm{Xe}$ measurement, and has quadrupole collectivity equal to, within uncertainty, that of the ground-state band.