Revisiting the island of hexadecapole-deformation nuclei in the A ≈ 150 mass region: focusing on the model application to nuclear shapes and masses

Abstract

Based on the potential-energy-surface calculation, the impact of different deformation degrees of freedom on a single-particle structure and binding energies in nuclei around 152Nd, located on one of the hexadecapole-deformation islands, is analyzed in a multi-dimensional deformation space. Various energy maps, curves and tables are presented to indicate nuclear properties. The calculated equilibrium deformations and binding energies with different potential parameters are compared with experimental data and other theories. It is found that the inclusion of the hexadecapole deformations, especially the axial one, can improve the theoretical description of both nuclear shapes and masses. In addition, our calculated potential-energy curve shows that a critical deformation-point, β 2 ≈ 0.4, exists—the triaxial (hexadecapole) deformation effect can be neglectable but the hexadecapole (triaxial) one plays an important role before (after) such a critical point.