Nuclear shape transitions, level density, and underlying interactions

Abstract

Background: The configuration-interaction approach to nuclear structure uses the effective Hamiltonian in a finite orbital space. The various parts of this Hamiltonian and their interplay are responsible for specific features of physics including the shape of the mean field and level density. This interrelation is not sufficiently understood.Purpose: We intend to study phase transitions between spherical and deformed shapes driven by different parts of the nuclear Hamiltonian and to establish the presence of the collective enhancement of the nuclear level density by varying the shell-model matrix elements.Method: By varying the interaction matrix elements we define, for nuclei in the $sd$ and $pf$ shells, the sectors with spherical and deformed shapes. By using the moments method that does not require the full diagonalization we relate the shape transitions with the corresponding level density.Results: Enhancement of the level density in the low-energy part of the spectrum is observed in clear correlation with a deformation phase transition induced mainly by the matrix elements of single-particle transfer.Conclusions: The single-particle-transfer matrix elements in the shell model nuclear Hamiltonian are indeed the carriers of deformation, providing rotational observables and enhanced level densities.