A Composite Chiral Pair of Rotational Bands in the odd-A Nucleus 135Nd

Abstract

High-spin states in 135Nd were populated with the 110Pd(30Si,5n)135Nd reaction at a 30Si bombarding energy of 133 MeV. Two Delta(I)=1 bands with close excitation energies and the same parity were observed. These bands are directly linked by Delta(I)=1 and Delta(I)=2 transitions. The chiral nature of these two bands is confirmed by comparison with three-dimensional tilted axis cranking calculations. This is the first observation of a three-quasiparticle chiral structure and established the primarily geometric nature of this phenomenon.

10 pages, 5 figures (1 in color), 1 table, submitted to Physics Review Letters, written in REVTEX4 format