Subshell gaps and onsets of collectivity from proton and neutron pairing gap correlations

Abstract

Throughout the nuclear chart, particle-hole correlations give rise to giant resonances and, together with the proton–neutron interaction, deformation and rotational bands. In order to shed light on many-body correlations in open-shell nuclei, I explore macroscopic properties that could manifest from the collective behaviour of protons and neutrons. Intuitively, the correlation of proton and neutron Cooper pairs can be inferred from the respective pairing gaps, that can precisely be extracted from the AME 2020 atomic mass evaluation through odd-even atomic mass differences. This work shows that the combination of large and close-lying proton and neutron pairing gaps is sensitive to onsets of collectivity and subshell gaps in superfluid nuclei, away from major shell closures. Trends of reduced transition probabilities or B(E2) values — which describe the collective overlap between the wave functions of initial and final nuclear states — are revealed in overall agreement with data. Specially interesting is the peak of collectivity in the tin isotopes at ¹¹⁰Sn, instead of at midshell, as expected by large-scale shell-model calculations; a situation that has astounded the nuclear physics community for quite some time.