Puzzling isotonic odd-even staggering of charge-radii in deformed rare earth nuclei
14 affiliations
- 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC USA
- 2National Institute for Fusion Science, Toki, Gifu Japan
- 3Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Grenoble INP, IRIG, SyMMES, Grenoble, F-38000 France
- 4Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA
- 5Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, MA USA
- 6Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI USA
- 7Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
- 8Department of Experimental Physics, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
- 9HUN-REN Institute for Nuclear Research, Debrecen, Hungary
- 10Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD USA
- 11Astrophysics Science Division, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD USA
- 12Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD USA
- 13Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
- 14Institute for Laser Science, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
Isotonic (constant neutron number) systematics in the deformed rare-earth region have long suggested that nuclei with odd numbers of protons are more compact than their even-proton neighbors—except for Lu, whose recommended nuclear charge radius appeared anomalously large relative to Yb and Hf. We report a high-precision determination of the natural-abundance-averaged Lu-Yb charge-radius difference using extreme-ultraviolet spectroscopy of highly charged Na- and Mg-like ions, supported by high-accuracy relativistic atomic-structure calculations—a recently introduced method with the unique ability to measure inter-element charge-radius differences. Combined with muonic-atom and optical isotope-shift data, our results reestablish a pronounced odd-even staggering along the isotonic chain with neutron number N = 94. Nuclear density functional theory calculations, including quantified uncertainties, fail to reproduce the large stagger, while successfully reproducing the charge-radii staggering along isotopic chains and in semi-magic nuclei. In this work, we resolve the Lu inversion anomaly and provide new constraints for experimental and theoretical studies of nuclear size.
Related
- Deformed self-consistent Green's function method for atomic nuclei at second and third order in the algebraic diagrammatic construction
- Theoretical study of normal deformed rotational bands of odd-mass 167,169,171Lu nuclei
- Enhanced structure-dependent alpha decay tunneling in deformed odd-odd nuclei via intense two-color laser pulses
- Orientation effects of deformed nuclei in intermediate-energy nuclear scattering
- Emulation of coupled-channels scattering for strongly deformed nuclei
BibTeX
@article{takacs2026puzzling,
title = {{Puzzling isotonic odd-even staggering of charge-radii in deformed rare earth nuclei}},
author = {E. Takacs and H. Staiger and S. A. Blundell and N. Kimura and H. A. Sakaue and R. F. Garcia Ruiz and W. Nazarewicz and P.-G. Reinhard and C. A. Faiyaz and C. Suzuki and Dipti and I. Angeli and Y. Ralchenko and I. Murakami and D. Kato and Y. Nagai and R. Takaoka and Y. Miya and N. Nakamura},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77471-7},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77471-7},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Puzzling isotonic odd-even staggering of charge-radii in deformed rare earth nuclei
AU - E. Takacs
AU - H. Staiger
AU - S. A. Blundell
AU - N. Kimura
AU - H. A. Sakaue
AU - R. F. Garcia Ruiz
AU - W. Nazarewicz
AU - P.-G. Reinhard
AU - C. A. Faiyaz
AU - C. Suzuki
AU - Dipti
AU - I. Angeli
AU - Y. Ralchenko
AU - I. Murakami
AU - D. Kato
AU - Y. Nagai
AU - R. Takaoka
AU - Y. Miya
AU - N. Nakamura
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/26
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-77471-7
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77471-7
AB - Isotonic (constant neutron number) systematics in the deformed rare-earth region have long suggested that nuclei with odd numbers of protons are more compact than their even-proton neighbors—except for Lu, whose recommended nuclear charge radius appeared anomalously large relative to Yb and Hf. We report a high-precision determination of the natural-abundance-averaged Lu-Yb charge-radius difference using extreme-ultraviolet spectroscopy of highly charged Na- and Mg-like ions, supported by high-accuracy relativistic atomic-structure calculations—a recently introduced method with the unique ability to measure inter-element charge-radius differences. Combined with muonic-atom and optical isotope-shift data, our results reestablish a pronounced odd-even staggering along the isotonic chain with neutron number N = 94. Nuclear density functional theory calculations, including quantified uncertainties, fail to reproduce the large stagger, while successfully reproducing the charge-radii staggering along isotopic chains and in semi-magic nuclei. In this work, we resolve the Lu inversion anomaly and provide new constraints for experimental and theoretical studies of nuclear size.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -