A re-examination of the band structure of²²³Ra and reflection asymmetry in this nucleus

Abstract

A thorough examination of the level structure of 223Ra provides evidence that leads to an extensive re-evaluation of spin assignments and hence band structure. Altogether six bands corresponding to three parity-coupled pairs are identified and the interpretation of the data suggests that this N=135 nucleus may possess an octupole deformation. The band structure is interpreted within the framework of calculations using the Strutinski shell-correction method with a single-particle level scheme obtained with a Woods-Saxon mean field. The minimisation procedure for the total energy is achieved in a multideformation space including higher-order multipolarity deformations up to lambda =7. The importance of higher-order multipolarity deformation parameters is underlined.