Ground-state Properties of Er, Yb and Hf Isotopes

The Nilsson mean-field plus extended-pairing model for deformed nuclei is applied to describe the ground-state properties of selected rare-earth nuclei. Binding energies, even-odd mass differences, moments of inertia for the ground-state band of ^152-164Er, ^154-166Yb, and ^156-168Hf are calculated systematically in the model employing both proton-proton and neutron-neutron pairing interactions. In comparison with the corresponding experimental data, it is shown that for these rare-earth nuclei, pairing interaction is crucial in elucidating the properties of the ground state. With model parameters determined by fitting the energies of these states, ground-state occupation probabilities of valence nucleon pairs with angular momentum J =0,1, …,12 for even-even 156-162Yb are calculated. It is inferred that the occupation probabilities of valence nucleon pairs with even angular momenta are much higher than those of valence nucleon pairs with odd angular momenta. The results clearly indicate that S, D, and G valence nucleon pairs dominate in the ground state of these nuclei.