Lifetimes of high-spin states in {sup 180-184}Pt

Abstract

Over the past few years, lifetimes were measured, using the recoil distance method, to investigate shape-coexistence and shape transitions in the even mass {sup 182-186}Pt isotopes. In all three cases, one observes a sharp increase in the transition quadrupole moment, Q{sub t}, at low frequencies followed by a rapid and significant decline in the backbending region. It was shown that the initial increase in the Q{sub t} can be explained in terms of the mixing at low spins of two bands of very different deformation, and the decline in the backbending region is brought about by mixing between the ground and a two-quasiparticle band. No lifetime information exists for these nuclei above the backbend, and there is some contention whether or not the backbend is due to the alignment of h{sub 9/2} protons, i{sub 13/2} neutrons or the near simultaneous alignment of both. Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations indicate very different shapes for the nuclei after the backbend, depending on which orbitals align. Thus, lifetime information on the states above the backbend should help determine which interpretation is correct. In order to determine the lifetimes of states in the even mass {sup 180-184}Pt nuclei above the backbend, we performed a recent experiment at Gammasphere using a {sup 64}Ni beam on Pb backed Sn targets in order to populate the nucleus of interest via a 4n reaction. At the time of the experiment, thirty-six Ge detectors were available for use in Gammasphere and approximately 100 x 10{sup 6} 3-fold and higher events were taken for each nucleus. Currently, angle-sorted matrices were created from the data, and spectra representing the ground bands show well developed lineshapes for transitions above the backbend. A full lineshape analysis of the data will begin shortly.