Landscape of pear-shaped even-even nuclei

Understand

The phenomenon of reflection-asymmetric nuclear shapes is relevant to nuclear stability, nuclear spectroscopy, nuclear decays and fission, and the search for new physics beyond the standard model.

• Global surveys of ground-state octupole deformation, performed with a limited number of models, suggest that the number of pear-shaped isotopes is fairly limited across the nuclear landscape.
• We carry out global analysis of ground-state octupole deformations for particle-bound even-even nuclei with $Z \leq 110$ and $N \leq 210$ using nuclear density functional theory (DFT) with several non-relativistic and covariant energy density functionals.
• In this way, we can identify the best candidates for reflection-asymmetric shapes.