The calculated physical observables for the positive- and negative-parity bands in $ ^{153} {\rm{Eu}}$![]()
, including the excitation energies, the energy staggering parameters $S(I) = [E(I)- E(I-1)]/(2I)$![]()
, and the intraband $ E2 $![]()
and $ M1 $![]()
transition probabilities, are shown in Fig. 2 in comparison with the data available [19].
As shown in Fig. 2(a), the experimental positive- and negative-parity bands are nearly degenerate in energy. The negative-parity band is situated at a slightly higher level in the bandhead vicinity. As the spin increases, it undergoes a downward shift with respect to the positive-parity band, reaching a point of intersection at $ I = 11/2\hbar $![]()
. The calculated excitation energies well reproduce the data for both the positive-parity band $ \pi = + $![]()
and negative-parity band $ \pi = - $![]()
. For the observed spin range of $ 5/2\hbar\le I\le 37/2\hbar $![]()
, the calculated average energy difference between the positive- and negative-parity bands is 10 keV, which is close to the experimental value of 14 keV. Figure 2(b) shows the behavior of signature splitting for the positive- and negative-parity bands, as represented by the staggering parameters $ S(I) $![]()
. In contrast to the nearly vanished splitting observed for the positive-parity band, the $ S(I) $![]()
values exhibit pronounced signature splitting for the negative-parity band. The RAT-PRM calculations well reproduce the experimental values and behaviors in the spin region $ I\ge11/2\hbar $![]()
, and the different $ S(I) $![]()
behaviors for the two bands are attributed to their different configurations. The configuration for the positive-parity band is found to be dominated by $ \pi g_{7/2}[\Omega = 5/2] $![]()
, and $ \pi h_{11/2}[\Omega = 5/2] $![]()
for the negative-parity band. For the positive-parity band, the component $ \pi g_{7/2}[\Omega = 5/2] $![]()
with a relatively-high Ω is always predominant as the spin increases, leading to the nearly vanished signature splitting. For the negative-parity band, the component $ \pi h_{11/2}[\Omega = 5/2] $![]()
decreases rapidly while the component $ \pi h_{11/2}[\Omega = 3/2] $![]()
with a relatively-low Ω increases as the spin increases, which leads to the pronounced signature splitting.
As shown in Fig. 2(c), the experimental $ B(E2) $![]()
values for the positive-parity band increase as the spin increases, whereas for the negative-parity band, the first two data follow the increasing tendency but the last datum at $ I = 21/2\hbar $![]()
has an obvious drop. The calculated $ B(E2) $![]()
values well reproduce the increasing trend and are close to the experimental values in magnitude. More experimental data are necessary to pin down the $ B(E2) $![]()
tendency for the negative-parity band. The $ M1 $![]()
transition strengths are sensitive to the single-particle components of the intrinsic wave functions. As shown in Fig. 2(d), the experimental $ B(M1) $![]()
values exhibit a pronounced staggering behavior for the negative-parity band, while this behavior is not shown in the positive-parity band. Although the calculated $ B(M1) $![]()
values differ by a factor of two from the experimental results, the trends of the experimental $ B(M1) $![]()
values are well reproduced for both positive- and negative-parity bands, indicating the proper intrinsic wave functions in the present calculations.
The observation of enhanced interband E1 transitions connecting the positive- and negative-parity bands is an important signal of octupole correlations in atomic nuclei. Figures 3(a) and (b) show the calculated interband $ B(E1) $![]()
values from the positive-parity to negative-parity bands ($ \pi+\rightarrow\pi- $![]()
) and those from the negative-parityto positive-parity bands ($ \pi-\rightarrow\pi+ $![]()
), respectively, in comparison with the available experimental data [19]. The calculated $ B(E1) $![]()
values with $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
generally underestimate the experimental data. By introducing the octupole deformation in the RAT-PRM calculations, the $ B(E1) $![]()
values are found to depend sensitively on the value of the octupole deformation parameter $ \beta_{30} $![]()
. The calculated $ B(E1) $![]()
values with $ \beta_{30} = 0.07 $![]()
are two orders of magnitude higher than those with $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
. The calculated values show good agreement with the experimental data for $ \beta_{30} = 0.05 $![]()
. This result indicates that the single-particle contributions in Eq. (3) alone are insufficient to account for the substantial $ E1 $![]()
transitions observed in $ ^{153} {\rm{Eu}}$![]()
. By contrast, no notable influences on the excitation energies and $ B(E2) $![]()
and $ B(M1) $![]()
values were observed when $ \beta_{30} $![]()
was changed from 0.00 to 0.07. Furthermore, considering the soft behavior of PES in $ \beta_{20} $![]()
, RAT-PRM calculations with $ \beta_{20} = 0.35 $![]()
and $ \beta_{30} $![]()
changing from 0.00 to 0.07 have been performed to investigate the sensibility of $ B(E1) $![]()
on $ \beta_{30} $![]()
at different $ \beta_{20} $![]()
. Based on the reproduction of the energy spectra, the sensibility of $ B(E1) $![]()
to $ \beta_{30} $![]()
at $ \beta_{20} = 0.35 $![]()
showed similar behavior to that at $ \beta_{20} = 0.30 $![]()
.
To determine the roles of the two terms in Eq. (3), Figs. 4(a) and (b) show the calculated $ B(E1) $![]()
values for the interband $ E1 $![]()
transitions from the positive-parity to negative-parity bands in $ ^{153} {\rm{Eu}}$![]()
for $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
and $ \beta_{30} = 0.05 $![]()
, respectively. As shown in Fig. 4(a), the $ E1 $![]()
transitions are completely due to the contribution of the intrinsic valence particle part in Eq. (3) since the collective dipole moment $ q_{10}^{(c)} = 0 $![]()
with $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
. For $ \beta_{30} = 0.05 $![]()
, as shown in Fig. 4(b), the $ E1 $![]()
transitions are primarily due to the contribution of the collective part in Eq. (3). The contribution of the collective part increases and shows a staggering behavior at high spins as the spin increases, as does the calculated $ B(E1) $![]()
value. This staggering behavior may result from variations in the main components of the intrinsic wave functions.
The main components of the RAT-PRM wave functions in terms of the strong coupled basis $ |IMK\rangle\chi^\nu_p $![]()
(denoted as $ |K\nu\rangle_p $![]()
for short) are shown in Fig. 5. Here, $ |IMK\rangle $![]()
is the Wigner function, with I, M, and K denoting the quantum numbers of the total angular momentum and its projections along the third axis in the laboratory and intrinsic frames, and $ \chi_p^\nu $![]()
representing the intrinsic wave function of the νth proton single-particle level $ |\nu\rangle_p $![]()
. The main component of the positive-parity band is $ |5/2,1\rangle_p $![]()
, and that for negative-parity band is $ |5/2,4\rangle_p $![]()
, i.e., the positive- and negative-parity bands are built on one-proton configurations $ |1\rangle_p $![]()
and $ |4\rangle_p $![]()
, respectively. As shown in Figs. 5(a) and (b), for the positive-parity band, the largest component $ |5/2,1\rangle_p $![]()
plays an overwhelming role, with the amplitude always larger than 0.80, whereas the largest component of the negative-parity band $ |5/2,4\rangle_p $![]()
decreases rapidly with spin, i.e., its amplitude decreases from 0.94 ($ 5/2\hbar $![]()
) to 0.43 ($ 35/2\hbar $![]()
) and 0.56 ($ 37/2\hbar $![]()
). In comparison, the main components of the intrinsic wave functions for the positive- and negative-parity bands are nearly unchanged with $ \beta_{30} = 0.05 $![]()
, as shown in Figs. 5(c) and (d).
To understand why the octupole deformation $ \beta_{30} $![]()
inherently results in a different performance of $ B(E1) $![]()
, as shown in Fig. 4, we further examine the main spherical harmonic oscillator components of the single-particle levels $ |1\rangle_p $![]()
and $ |4\rangle_p $![]()
of the proton for $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
and $ \beta_{30}\ne0.00 $![]()
. When $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
, the parity is a good quantum number and the spherical components with different parities cannot mix. The positive-parity level $ |1\rangle_p $![]()
has the dominant component $ g_{7/2} $![]()
, mixed with components such as $ i_{11/2} $![]()
and $ d_{5/2} $![]()
. The negative-parity level $ |4\rangle_p $![]()
has the dominate component $ h_{11/2} $![]()
, mixed with components such as $ j_{15/2} $![]()
and $ f_{7/2} $![]()
. When $ \beta_{30}\ne 0.00 $![]()
, the parity is no longer a good quantum number and the spherical components with different parities can mix with each other. The level $ |1\rangle_p $![]()
dominated by $ g_{7/2} $![]()
is mixed with the opposite parity component $ h_{11/2} $![]()
, while the level $ |4\rangle_p $![]()
dominated by $ h_{11/2} $![]()
is mixed with $ g_{7/2} $![]()
. Although only the intrinsic valence particle part in Eq. (3) contributes to the $ E1 $![]()
transitions for $ \beta_{30} = 0.00 $![]()
, the intrinsic and collective parts contribute to the transitions for $ \beta_{30}\ne0.00 $![]()
. For the intrinsic part, the intrinsic components that can contribute nonzero $ E1 $![]()
single-particle matrix elements change a little as $ \beta_{30} $![]()
increases, resulting in the nearly unchanged single-particle contribution of $ E1 $![]()
transitions, as shown in Fig. 4. For the collective part, the $ E1 $![]()
transitions can be enhanced by the matrix element between the largest component $ g_{7/2} $![]()
in $ |1\rangle_p $![]()
, the same component $ g_{7/2} $![]()
mixed in $ |4\rangle_p $![]()
, that between the largest component $ h_{11/2} $![]()
in $ |4\rangle_p $![]()
, and the same component $ h_{11/2} $![]()
mixed in $ |1\rangle_p $![]()
, etc. Since the probabilities of these matrix elements become significant as $ \beta_{30} $![]()
increases, the contributions of the collective part will dominate the $ B(E1) $![]()
for a large $ \beta_{30} $![]()
value, as shown in Fig. 4(b) for $ \beta_{30} = 0.05 $![]()
.
In Ref. [31], the octupole correlations of the observed low-lying $ K = 5/2^\pm $![]()
positive- and negative-parity structures in nucleus $ ^{151} {\rm{Pm}}$![]()
, the $ N = 90 $![]()
isotonic neighbor of $ ^{153} {\rm{Eu}}$![]()
, have been investigated. The observed doublet bands in $ ^{151} {\rm{Pm}}$![]()
and $ ^{153} {\rm{Eu}}$![]()
show quite similar characteristics in both the energy spectra of positive- and negative-parity bands, the enhanced interband $ E1 $![]()
transitions, and in their different g factors of the opposite-parity states in the two bands. The similarity of the two nuclei suggests the same origin for these experimental characteristics. Based on the RAT-PRM calculations, the observed nearly-degenerate positive- and negative-parity bands in $ ^{153} {\rm{Eu}}$![]()
and $ ^{151} {\rm{Pm}}$![]()
can be interpreted as two separate bands based on a substantial reflection-asymmetric core and two individual proton configurations. This interpretation differs with the parity doublet bands built on a single parity-mixed configuration, e.g., that observed in $ ^{223} {\rm{Th}}$![]()
[32]. Further systematic studies of interest include the observed parity doublet bands and comparisons of the parity doublet bands built on a single parity-mixed configuration and those on two different configurations in the $ A\sim 150 $![]()
mass region. Notably, although the deformation parameters from the microscopic CDFT are adopted, some free parameters still exist in the present RAT-PRM, such as the core parity splitting parameter $ E(0^-) $![]()
and the moment of inertia for reproducing the experimental data. Further combination with the microscopic theory, such as the cranking CDFT and the beyond mean-field approach in the future, is relevant to constrain these parameters.