Study of the shape coexistence in the 96Zr, 96Mo, 96Ru isobars

TL;DR

This study investigates shape coexistence and mixing phenomena in three stable isobars near shell closures using covariant density functional theory and the Bohr-Mottelson model, revealing their significant impact on nuclear structure.

Contribution

It combines covariant density functional theory and the Bohr-Mottelson model to analyze shape coexistence in $^{96}$Zr, $^{96}$Mo, and $^{96}$Ru, providing new insights into their nuclear structure.

Findings

Ground state deformations are extracted from potential energy surfaces.

Results highlight the significant role of shape coexistence and mixing.

The approaches show consistent contributions to understanding nuclear states.

Abstract

Three stable isobars, $^{96}_{40}$Zr$_{56}$, $^{96}_{42}$Mo$_{54}$ and $^{96}_{44}$Ru$_{52}$, which are in the vicinity of the harmonic oscillator proton shell closure Z=40 and the spin-orbit neutron shell closure N=50, are investigated for the presence of the shape coexistence and mixing phenomena. The ground state deformation of these isobars is extracted from the potential energy surface determined with the Covariant Density Functional Theory using a density-dependent point-coupling interaction, while the excited states are described involving the Bohr-Mottelson Hamiltonian with octic potential for both axially symmetric and $\gamma$-unstable quadrupole deformations. Within the broader view of the two approaches, the obtained results clearly highlight the significant contribution of these phenomena to the structure of the states of these nuclei.