Systematic Search For Evidence of Tetrahedral and Octahedral Symmetries in Subatomic Physics: Follow-up of the First Identification Case in ¹⁵²Sm

¹ Université de Strasbourg and IPHC, 23, rue du Loess, F-67037 Strasbourg, France, CNRS, UMR7178, F-67037 Strasbourg, France
² Instytut Fizyki - Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 1, PL-20031 Lublin, Poland
³ Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, USTHB, BP 32, El Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria
⁴ II. Physikalisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen 35392 Gießen, Germany
⁵ GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
⁶ School of Physics and Engineering, Zhengzhou University Zhengzhou 450001, China

^* e-mail: Jerzy.Dudek@iphc.cnrs.fr

Published online: 4 December 2019

Abstract

In a recent article [1] group-theory representation-methods have been combined with the realistic mean-field calculation results to elaborate new, specifically designed methods of experimental identification of the tetrahedral/octahedral symmetries in atomic nuclei. The authors demonstrated that experimental data on ¹⁵² Sm existing in the literature are fully compatible with the extremely restrictive group-theory criteria of simultaneous presence of tetrahedral and octahedral symmetries, thus identifying these symmetries in subatomic physics for the first time. We discuss theory predictions related to the systematic presence of these symmetries as well as their manifestations throughout the Periodic Table in the form of islands centred around the doublymagic tetrahedral-symmetry nuclei.

The corresponding theory predictions are discussed in the context of the planned new experiments, which would employ the advanced mass-spectrometry methods [2], in view of the new experimental search criteria [1]. The addressed field of symmetry-research presents particularly promising potentialities in the domain of exotic nuclei studies. Indeed, as it can be demonstrated, in the exact tetrahedral and/or octahedral symmetry limits the corresponding nuclei emit neither E2 nor E1 radiation generating isomeric states with lifetimes which can become much longer than those of the related ground states. This is expected to open the new research strategies for the whole domain of the exotic nuclei studies throughout the Periodic Table.