Low-energy enhancement of the magnetic dipole radiation in odd-mass lanthanides

TL;DR

This study uses advanced shell-model Monte Carlo methods to analyze magnetic dipole gamma-ray strength functions in odd-mass lanthanides, revealing a low-energy enhancement and a scissors mode resonance, with results aligning with recent experimental observations.

Contribution

First comprehensive theoretical analysis of M1 gamma-ray strength functions in odd-mass lanthanides using shell-model Monte Carlo methods, including uncertainty quantification.

Findings

Identification of low-energy enhancement in M1 gamma-ray strength functions.

Observation of scissors mode resonance in deformed isotopes.

Compensation between LEE decrease and SR increase along isotopic chains.

Abstract

We compute the magnetic dipole (M1) $\gamma$-ray strength functions ($\gamma$SF) for the odd-mass lanthanides $^{143-151}$Nd and $^{147-153}$Sm using the shell-model Monte Carlo method in combination with the static-path approximation and the maximum-entropy method. In particular, we quantify the statistical uncertainties in the calculated M1 $\gamma$SFs and show that they are under control for the excitation energies relevant to the experiments despite a Monte Carlo sign problem that originates in the projection onto an odd number of neutrons. We identify a low-energy enhancement (LEE) in the M1 $\gamma$SFs of these odd-mass lanthanides, which was recently observed experimentally in some of them. We also find a scissors mode resonance (SR) in the strongly deformed isotopes. We observe that the decrease in the LEE strength with neutron number along an isotopic chain is compensated for by an increase in the SR strength in the deformed nuclei. We compare our results with recent experiments.