Low-lying levels of 77Se studied by thermal neutron capture and evidence for a new term in the E2 operator of RQM (IBM)

Abstract

A high-resolution study of the 76Se(n, γ) reaction was carried out with curved-crystal and pair spectrometers and conversion electrons were measured following slow-neutron capture. The resulting data yield very precise level energies and spin and parity assignments for most of the levels. The neutron separation energy of 77Se was measured as 7418.85 ± 0.07 keV. The experimental data were compared with theoretical results for the level energies in 77Se and the E2, M1 and E1 branching ratios obtained from the SU(6) particle-vibration model (PTQM). We used 76Se as a slightly perturbed SU(5) vibrational core and the particle-vibration interaction strengths from the PTQM calculation for 75Se. In this frame there is evidence for a Δn = 2 term in the E2 operator. This term has not been included so far in TQM and IBM calculations.