Abstract
The Gamow-Teller strength distribution of the decay of 186Hg into 186Au has been determined for the first time using the total absorption gamma spectroscopy technique and has been compared with theoretical QRPA calculations using the SLy4 Skyrme force. The measured Gamow-Teller strength distribution and the half-life are described by mixing oblate and prolate configurations independently in the parent and daughter nuclei. In this theoretical framework the best description of the experimental beta strength is obtained with dominantly prolate components for both parent 186Hg and daughter 186Au. The approach also allowed us to determine an upper limit of the oblate component in the parent state. The complexity of the analysis required the development of a new approach in the analysis of the X-ray gated total absorption spectrum.
Highlights
The existence of eigenstates characterized by different intrinsic shapes in a particular nucleus can be considered a unique type of behaviour in finite many-body quantum systems [1]
Summarizing, in this article we have presented for the first time the measurement of the β-decay of 186Hg using the total absorption technique
The complexity of the case required the development of a new approach in the analysis to handle the penetration and summing of the X-rays in the total absorption spectrometer that can be of particular interest for cases where the β+ component of the β-decay can contaminate the X-ray gated spectra
Summary
The existence of eigenstates characterized by different intrinsic shapes in a particular nucleus can be considered a unique type of behaviour in finite many-body quantum systems [1]. Even though the information that can be obtained from such a β-decay study is considered model dependent, it can be complementary to the results based on other techniques such as Coulomb excitation, and can provide independent information on the prolate or oblate character of the ground state of the parent nucleus, since it is based on a different probe. This is of particular interest since a direct measurement of the electric quadrupole moment of the ground state of 186Hg is not possible. The theoretical analysis presented here for the first time in the framework of QRPA calculations should be considered as a first attempt to deal with complex cases where parent and daughter nuclei are expected to exhibit different degrees of mixing
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