100 Years of Nuclear Isomers

Shape coexistence occurs when the potential energy of the nucleus is characterized by local minima for different shapes. Excited states in the secondary minimum may become isomeric if the potential barrier separating the secondary minimum from the ground-state minimum is sufficiently pronounced. The first examples of such shape isomers were observed in the 1960s, as fission isomers in the...

The single particle (sp) structure of isomeric states of some well-deformed even-even
nuclei in the rare-earth and actinide regions is studied within a self-consistent Hartree-
Fock plus BCS approach (with blocking)[1]. The well studied Skyrme SIII parametrisation
is used for the particle-hole part of the nuclear interaction and a seniority force for its
residual part. The parameters of...

The ISOL technique of producing radioactive beams at TRIUMF [1] is well recognized for producing exotic species in both their ground- and isomeric states. The beta and beta-delayed-neutron decay of ground spin and isomeric states has been investigated with the GRIFFIN spectrometer [2], consisting of up to 16 Compton-suppressed hyper purity Germanium detectors for gamma-ray detection and...

The observation of proton radioactivity from nuclei beyond the proton drip line, provides a way to probe nuclear structure at the limits of stability. The existence of long-lived isomeric states can encourage the emission of a proton besides the ground state emission, and thus provide extra experimental information on exotic nuclei, that are difficult to produce and observe, due
to the very...