Microscopic structure of coexisting 0+ states in 68Ni probed via two-neutron transfer
Phys. Rev. C
The structure of low-spin states originating from shape-coexisting configurations in
68
40
Ni
28
was directly probed via the two-neutron transfer reaction
66
Ni
(𝑡,𝑝)
68
Ni
in inverse kinematics using a radioactive ion beam on a radioactive target. The direct feeding to the first excited 0+ state was measured for center-of-mass angles 4∘–16∘ and amounts to an integral of 4.2(16)% relative to the ground state. The observed difference in feeding of the 0+ states is explained by the transfer of neutrons, mainly in the 𝑝𝑓 shell below 𝑁=40 for the ground state, and across 𝑁=40 in the 𝑔9/2 orbital for the 0+
2, based on second-order distorted-wave Born approximation calculations combined with state-of-the-art shell-model two-nucleon amplitudes. However, the direct feeding to the 2+
1 state [29(3)%] is incompatible with these calculations.