Role of quadrupole deformation and continuum effects in the "island of inversion'' nuclei $^{28,29,31}$F

TL;DR

This study explores how quadrupole deformation and continuum effects influence the structure of 'island of inversion' nuclei $^{28,29,31}$F, revealing their roles in negative-parity ground states and halo formations.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic mean-field approach combined with complex-momentum representation to analyze deformation and continuum effects in these nuclei, highlighting their impact on nuclear structure.

Findings

Quadrupole deformation can induce negative parity ground states in $^{28}$F.

Halo structures in $^{29,31}$F are associated with specific deformation ranges.

Continuum effects significantly influence shell evolution and nuclear stability.

Abstract

The properties of nuclei in the ``island of inversion'' (IOI) around Z=10 and N=20 are the focus of current nuclear physics research. Recent studies showed that $^{28}$F has a negative-parity ground state (g.s.) and thus lies within the southern shore of the IOI, and $^{29}$F presents a halo structure in its g.s., but it is unclear which effects, such as deformation, shell evolution due to tensor forces, or couplings to the continuum, lead to this situation. We investigate the role of quadrupole deformation and continuum effects on the single-particle (s.p.) structure of $^{28,29,31}$F from a relativistic mean-field (RMF) approach, and show how both phenomena can lead to a negative-parity g.s. in $^{28}$F and halo structures in $^{29,31}$F. We solve the Dirac equation in the complex-momentum (Berggren) representation for a potential with quadrupole deformation at the first order obtained from RMF calculations using the NL3 interaction, and calculate the continuum level densities using the Green's function method. We extract s.p. energies and widths from the continuum level densities to construct Nilsson diagrams, and analyse the evolution of both the widths and occupation probabilities of relevant Nilsson orbitals in $^{28}$F and find that some amount of prolate deformation must be present. In addition, we calculate the density distributions for bound Nilsson orbitals near the Fermi surface in $^{29,31}$F and reveal that for a quadrupole deformation $0.3 \leq \beta_2 \leq 0.45$ (prolate), halo tails appear at large distances. We also demonstrate that while in the spherical case the $pf$ shells are already inverted and close to the neutron emission threshold, a small amount of quadrupole deformation can reduce the gap between $fp$ shells and increase the role of the continuum, ultimately leading to the negative parity in the g.s. of $^{28}$F and the halo structures in $^{29,31}$F.