Octupole deformation in neutron-rich actinides and superheavy nuclei and the role of nodal structure of single-particle wavefunctions in extremely deformed structures of light nuclei

TL;DR

This study uses covariant density functional theory to explore octupole deformation in neutron-rich actinides, superheavy nuclei, and light nuclei, revealing new regions of deformation and elucidating the role of wavefunction nodal structures in nuclear shapes.

Contribution

It identifies a new region of octupole deformation in neutron-rich actinides and explains the influence of wavefunction nodal structures on nuclear deformation and clustering phenomena.

Findings

Confirmed a new octupole deformation region around Z~96, N~196 in actinides.

Did not predict octupole deformation in superheavy Z~108 ground states.

Showed how wavefunction nodal structures influence nuclear shapes and clustering in light nuclei.

Abstract

Octupole deformed shapes in neutron-rich actinides and superheavy nuclei as well as extremely deformed shapes of the N~Z light nuclei have been investigated within the framework of covariant density functional theory. We confirmed the presence of new region of octupole deformation in neutron-rich actinides with the center around Z~96, N~196 but our calculations do not predict octupole deformation in the ground states of superheavy Z~108 nuclei. As exemplified by the study of 36Ar, the nodal structure of the wavefunction of occupied single-particle orbitals in extremely deformed structures allows to understand the formation of the alpha-clusters in very light nuclei, the suppression of the alpha-clusterization with the increase of mass number, the formation of ellipsoidal mean-field type structures and nuclear molecules.