https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16166-2
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Search for two-phonon octupole excitations in 146Gd
1
Department of Physics, University of the Western Cape, P/B X17, 7535, Bellville, South Africa
2
iThemba LABS, P.O. Box 722, 7129, Somerset West, South Africa
3
Department of Physics and Engineering, University of Zululand, 3886, KwaDlangezwa, South Africa
4
Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, 7701, Rondebosch, South Africa
5
Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, E-28049, Madrid, Spain
6
Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, E-46071, Valencia, Spain
7
Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa
8
Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, 6410, Grahamstown, South Africa
9
Departments of Chemistry and Physics + Astronomy, University of Kentucky, 40506-0055, Lexington, KY, USA
* e-mail: jnorce@uwc.ac.za
Received:
20
March
2016
Revised:
24
May
2016
Accepted:
24
May
2016
Published online:
24
June
2016
The low-spin structure of the nearly spherical nucleus 146Gd was studied using the 144Sm(4He, 2n) fusion-evaporation reaction. High-statistics 
coincidence measurements were performed at iThemba LABS with 7× 109
- coincidence events recorded. Gated -ray energy spectra show evidence for the 
cascade of E3 transitions in agreement with recent findings by Caballero and co-workers, but with a smaller branching ratio of 
for the 
1905.1 keV ray. Although these findings may support octupole vibrations in spherical nuclei, sophisticated beyond mean-field calculations including angular-momentum projection are required to interpret in an appropriate way the available data due to the failure of the rotational model assumptions in this nucleus.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2016
