Structure of 240Pu: evidence for octupole phonon condensation?

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Mar 27;102(12):122501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.122501. Epub 2009 Mar 23.

Abstract

The expanded level structure of 240Pu available from the present study highlights the role of strong octupole correlations in this nucleus. In addition to a delayed alignment in the yrast band, the observations include the presence of both I(+)-->(I-1)(-) and I(-)-->(I-1)(+)E1 transitions linking states of the yrast and negative-parity bands at high spin and the presence of an additional even-spin, positive-parity band deexciting exclusively to the negative-parity sequence. The observations appear to be consistent with expectations based on the recently proposed concept of octupole phonon condensation.