Prolate shape of 140Ba from a first combined Doppler-shift and Coulomb-excitation measurement at the REX-ISOLDE facility
Phys. Rev. C
Background: Quadrupole moments of excited nuclear states are important observables for geometrically interpreting nuclear structure in terms of deformed shapes, although data are scarce and sometimes ambiguous, in particular, in neutron-rich nuclides.
Purpose: A measurement was performed for determining the spectroscopic quadrupole moment of the 2+
1 state of 140Ba in order to clarify the character of quadrupole deformation (prolate or oblate) of the state in its yrast sequence of levels.
Method: We have utilized a new combined technique of lifetime measurement at REX-ISOLDE and MINIBALL using the Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM) and a reorientation analysis of Coulomb-excitation yields.
Results: On the basis of the new lifetime of 𝜏(2+
1)=10.4+2.2
−0.8 ps the electric quadrupole moment was determined to be 𝑄(2+
1)=−0.52(34) 𝑒b, indicating a predominant prolate deformation.
Conclusions: This finding is in agreement with beyond-mean-field calculations using the Gogny D1S force and with results from the Monte Carlo shell-model approach.