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A multi-step Coulomb excitation measurement with the GRETINA and CHICO2 detector arrays was carried out with a 430-MeV beam of the neutron-rich 110Ru (t1/2=12 s) isotope produced at the CARIBU facility. This represents the first successful measurement following the post-acceleration of an unstable isotope of a refractory element. The reduced transition probabilities obtained for levels near the ground state provide strong evidence for a triaxial shape; a conclusion confirmed by comparisons with the results of beyond-mean-field and triaxial rotor model calculations.

We studied the proton-rich T_{z}=-1 nucleus ^{70}Kr through inelastic scattering at intermediate energies in order to extract the reduced transition probability, B(E2;0^{+}→2^{+}). Comparison with the other members of the A=70 isospin triplet, ^{70}Br and ^{70}Se, studied in the same experiment, shows a 3σ deviation from the expected linearity of the electromagnetic matrix elements as a function of T_{z}. At present, no established nuclear structure theory can describe this observed deviation quantitatively. This is the first violation of isospin symmetry at this level observed in the transition matrix elements. A heuristic approach may explain the anomaly by a shape change between the mirror nuclei ^{70}Kr and ^{70}Se contrary to the model predictions.

The lifetimes of the first excited 2^{+}, 4^{+}, and 6^{+} states in ^{98}Zr were measured with the recoil-distance Doppler shift method in an experiment performed at GANIL. Excited states in ^{98}Zr were populated using the fission reaction between a 6.2  MeV/u ^{238}U beam and a ^{9}Be target. The γ rays were detected with the EXOGAM array in correlation with the fission fragments identified by mass and atomic number in the VAMOS++ spectrometer. Our result shows a very small B(E2;2_{1}^{+}→0_{1}^{+}) value in ^{98}Zr, thereby confirming the very sudden onset of collectivity at N=60. The experimental results are compared to large-scale Monte Carlo shell model and beyond-mean-field calculations. The present results indicate the coexistence of two additional deformed shapes in this nucleus along with the spherical ground state.

We report on the first γ-ray spectroscopy of low-lying states in neutron-rich ^{98,100}Kr isotopes obtained from ^{99,101}Rb(p,2p) reactions at ∼220  MeV/nucleon. A reduction of the 2_{1}^{+} state energies beyond N=60 demonstrates a significant increase of deformation, shifted in neutron number compared to the sharper transition observed in strontium and zirconium isotopes. State-of-the-art beyond-mean-field calculations using the Gogny D1S interaction predict level energies in good agreement with experimental results. The identification of a low-lying (0_{2}^{+}, 2_{2}^{+}) state in ^{98}Kr provides the first experimental evidence of a competing configuration at low energy in neutron-rich krypton isotopes consistent with the oblate-prolate shape coexistence picture suggested by theory.

The first measurement of the low-lying states of the neutron-rich ^{110}Zr and ^{112}Mo was performed via in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy after one proton removal on hydrogen at ∼200  MeV/nucleon. The 2_{1}^{+} excitation energies were found at 185(11) keV in ^{110}Zr, and 235(7) keV in ^{112}Mo, while the R_{42}=E(4_{1}^{+})/E(2_{1}^{+}) ratios are 3.1(2), close to the rigid rotor value, and 2.7(1), respectively. These results are compared to modern energy density functional based configuration mixing models using Gogny and Skyrme effective interactions. We conclude that first levels of ^{110}Zr exhibit a rotational behavior, in agreement with previous observations of lighter zirconium isotopes as well as with the most advanced Monte Carlo shell model predictions. The data, therefore, do not support a harmonic oscillator shell stabilization scenario at Z=40 and N=70. The present data also invalidate predictions for a tetrahedral ground state symmetry in ^{110}Zr.

Lifetimes of states in the ground-state bands of (70)Se and (72)Se were measured using the recoil-distance Doppler shift method. The results deviate significantly from earlier measurements, requiring a revision of the conclusions drawn from a recent Coulomb excitation experiment concerning the shape of (70)Se. The new results lead to a coherent picture of shape coexistence in the neutron-deficient selenium and krypton isotopes. The coexistence and evolution of oblate and prolate shapes in this mass region is for the first time consistently described by new Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov-based configuration-mixing calculations which were performed using the Gogny D1S interaction.

We report the first comprehensive calculations of 2(+) excitations with a microscopic theory applicable to over 90% of the known nuclei. The theory uses a quantal collective Hamiltonian in five dimensions. The only parameters in theory are those of the finite-range, density-dependent Gogny D1S interaction. The following properties of the lowest 2(+) excitations are calculated: excitation energy, reduced transition probability, and spectroscopic quadrupole moment. We find that the theory is very reliable to classify the nuclei by shape. For deformed nuclei, average excitation energies and transition quadrupole moments are within 5% of the experimental values, and the dispersion about the averages are roughly 20% and 10%, respectively. Including all nuclei in the performance evaluation, the average transition quadrupole moment is 11% too high and the average energy is 13% too high.