Nonaxial pearlike nuclear shapes.

Abstract

We have extended the nuclear structure calculations to deformations that break both axial and reflection symmetry. The deformation energy has been calculated within the Strutinsky method with the Woods-Saxon mean field for systems that show signatures of octupole-deformed ground states. In well octupole-deformed light actinides, and in the neutron-rich heavy-barium region, the octupole minima turn out to be rather well localized around axial symmetry. On the other hand, rather flat energy landscapes in nonaxiality degree of freedom are found in some Z\ensuremath{\approxeq}N\ensuremath{\approxeq}56 nuclei. The effect is especially well pronounced in $^{64}\mathrm{Ge}$.