Low-lying two-particle states in the nucleus236Np

The ambiguities and the uncertainties about the energy levels of the doubly odd actinide nucleus ₉₃ ²³⁶ Np₁₄₃ are sought to be removed by determination of the bandhead energies of various two-particle configurations expected to appear in the low energy spectrum of this nucleus. The calculations involve quantitative evaluation of the zero range neutron-proton residual interaction energy contribution to the bandhead energy for each configuration. It is concluded that the ground state is the long-lived isomer with spin-parityI ^π=6^- arising from the configuration {5/2⁺642] _p +7/2^?743] _n }. Bandhead energies for eight two-particle states appearing upto an excitation energy of 400 keV are presented and the results are discussed in the context of the available and further experiments.