Shape Evolution in Neutron-rich Krypton Isotopes beyond N = 60 : First spectroscopy of 98;100Kr

We report on the first γ-ray spectroscopy of low-lying states in neutron-rich 98,100Kr isotopes obtained from 99,101Rb(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-theart 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 98Kr 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