Two-quasiproton states in 168Er studied by the 169Tm(t, α)168Er reaction

The ${}^{169}\text{Tm}\text{(}\text{t}\text{, α)}{}^{168}\text{Er}$ reaction has been studied using 17 MeV polarized tritons from the Los Alamos National Laboratory tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. The α-spectra were analyzed with a Q3D magnetic spectrometer. The overall energy resolution was typically ~ 15 keV (FHWM) and angular distributions of cross sections and analyzing powers were obtained for levels up to ~ 2.7 MeV. The fact that spins and parities for all levels up to ? 2 MeV were previously known from an extensive series of (n, γ) studies made it possible to determine specific two-quasiproton structures for many bands from the present results. The K^π = 2⁺ γ-vibrational band was found to have a large $\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[411]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[411]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}$ admixture, consistent with the predicted microscopic composition of this phonon, but no $\text{5}\text{2}\text{[413]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}\text{?}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[411]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}$ component was observed. The K^π = 0₄⁺ band at 1833 keV has ～ 25% of the $\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[411]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}\text{?}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[411]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}$ two-quasiproton strength. This is in excellent agreement with the Soloviev model but is inconsistent with the interacting boson model, in which the K^π = 0₄⁺ band is composed almost completely of multiphonon configurations that should not be populated in a single-nucleon transfer reaction. The $\text{K}{}^{\mathrm{\pi }}\text{= 4}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{,}\text{7}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{[523]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[411]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>p</mtext>}}$ two-quasiproton and the $\text{K}{}^{\mathrm{\pi }}\text{= 4}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{,}\text{7}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{[633]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>n</mtext>}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{[521]}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>n</mtext>}}$ two-quasineutron states are mixed strongly with each other, but the two K^π = 3^? bands composed of antiparallel couplings of the same particles are not. A good qualitative explanation of this mixing pattern is provided in terms of the effective neutron-proton interaction.