Eur. Phys. J. A (2016) 52: 28
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16028-y

Letter

DSAM lifetime measurements for the chiral pair in ¹⁹⁴Tl

¹ iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, PO Box 722, 7129, Somerset West, South Africa
² University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, 7535, Bellville, South Africa
³ University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park, South Africa
⁴ A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, 194021, St.-Petersburg, Russia
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, 7701, Rondebosch, South Africa

^* e-mail: plmasiteng@uj.ac.za

Received: 21 September 2015
Accepted: 24 January 2016
Published online: 12 February 2016

Abstract

Most important for the identification of chiral symmetry in atomic nuclei is to establish a pair of bands that are near-degenerate in energy, but also in B(M1) and B(E2) transition probabilities. Dedicated lifetime measurements were performed for four bands of ¹⁹⁴Tl, including the pair of four-quasiparticle chiral bands with close near-degeneracy, considered as a prime candidate for best chiral symmetry pair. The lifetime measurements confirm the excellent near-degeneracy in this pair and indicate that a third band may be involved in the chiral symmetry scenario.