Neutron shell structure and deformation in neutron-drip-line nuclei

TL;DR

This paper systematically examines neutron shell structures near the neutron drip line, revealing changes in magic numbers and potential deformations due to weakly-bound neutron states and spin-orbit interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of shell structure evolution and deformation in neutron-rich nuclei using Woods-Saxon potentials, highlighting the disappearance and emergence of magic numbers.

Findings

Disappearance of N=28 and N=50 magic numbers.

Possible deformation in nuclei with N≈21-28, 41-54, 83-90.

Identification of energy gaps at N=16 and 40.

Abstract

Neutron shell-structure and the resulting possible deformation in the neighborhood of neutron-drip-line nuclei are systematically discussed, based on both bound and resonant neutron one-particle energies obtained from spherical and deformed Woods-Saxon potentials. Due to the unique behavior of weakly-bound and resonant neutron one-particle levels with smaller orbital angular-momenta $\ell$, a systematic change of the shell structure and thereby the change of neutron magic-numbers are pointed out, compared with those of stable nuclei expected from the conventional j-j shell-model. For spherical shape with the operator of the spin-orbit potential conventionally used, the $\ell_{j}$ levels belonging to a given oscillator major shell with parallel spin- and orbital-angular-momenta tend to gather together in the energetically lower half of the major shell, while those levels with anti-parallel spin- and orbital-angular-momenta gather in the upper half. The tendency leads to a unique shell structure and possible deformation when neutrons start to occupy the orbits in the lower half of the major shell. Among others, the neutron magic-number N=28 disappears and N=50 may disappear, while the magic number N=82 may presumably survive due to the large $\ell =5$ spin-orbit splitting for the $1h_{11/2}$ orbit. On the other hand, an appreciable amount of energy gap may appear at N=16 and 40 for spherical shape, while neutron-drip-line nuclei in the region of neutron number above N=20, 40 and 82, namely N $\approx$ 21-28, N $\approx$ 41-54, and N $\approx$ 83-90, may be quadrupole-deformed though the possible deformation depends also on the proton number of respective nuclei.