Chirality in odd-$A$ nucleus $^{135}$Nd in particle rotor model

TL;DR

This paper develops a fully quantal particle rotor model to study nuclear chirality in $^{135}$Nd, successfully reproducing experimental data and revealing the evolution of chiral geometry with angular momentum.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fully quantal particle rotor model applied to $^{135}$Nd, providing detailed insights into chiral geometry and its evolution in odd-$A$ nuclei.

Findings

Excellent reproduction of energy levels and transition probabilities.

Identification of transition from soft chiral vibration to static chirality.

Observation of re-emergence of chiral vibration at higher spins.

Abstract

A particle rotor model is developed which couples several valence protons and neutrons to a rigid triaxial rotor core. It is applied to investigating the chirality in odd-$A$ nucleus $^{135}$Nd with $\pi h_{11/2}^2\otimes\nu h^{-1}_{11/2}$ configuration for the first time in a fully quantal approach. For the two chiral sister bands, the observed energies and the $B(M1)$ and $B(E2)$ values for the in-band as well as interband transitions are reproduced excellently. Root mean square values of the angular momentum components and their probability distributions are used for discussing in detail the chiral geometry of the aplanar rotation and its evolution with angular momentum. Chirality is found to change from a soft chiral vibration to nearly static chirality at spin $I=39/2$ and back to another type of chiral vibration at higher spin.