Exactly Solvable Model for the Decay of Superdeformed Nuclei

Abstract

The history and importance of superdeformation in nuclei is briefly discussed. A simple two-level model is then employed to obtain an elegant expression for the branching ratio for the decay via the E1 process in the normal-deformed band of superdeformed nuclei. From this expression, the spreading width Gamma^downarrow for superdeformed decay is found to be determined completely by experimentally known quantities. The accuracy of the two-level approximation is verified by considering the effects of other normal-deformed states. Furthermore, by using a statistical model of the energy levels in the normal-deformed well, we can obtain a probabilistic expression for the tunneling matrix element V.

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, from a talk given at the conference Blueprints for the Nucleus: From First Principles to Collective Motion, May 17-22, 2004, Feza Gursey Institute, Istanbul, Turkey, A Festschrift in honor of Professor Bruce Barrett, http://www.physics.sdsu.edu/Istanbul/