Isomer-tagged differential-plunger measurements in 113/54Xe

Abstract

The 278-keV M2 γ decay from the νh11/2 isomeric state in 113Xe has been observed for the first time using the recoil-isomer tagging technique. The half-life of the isomer has been measured to be 6.9(3) μs. The derived B(M2) value is in agreement with the trend of systematic measurements of M2 transition strengths in neutron-deficient tellurium and tin isotopes. The lifetime of the first excited state in the νh11/2 band has been measured using the recoil distance Doppler-shift method. The extracted B(E2) value has been compared to theoretical CD-Bonn calculations and recent lifetime measurements in 109Te. This comparison of B(E2) values has been used to shed light on the possible influence of collective degrees of freedom on M2 transition strengths in the most neutron-deficient xenon nuclei. The νh11/2 band is deduced to have a degree of deformation comparable with the ground-state bands of the even-mass xenon isotopes. However, the value deduced in this work indicates a loss of collective behavior when compared with the lower-mass 109Te. This result suggests that, while changes in deformation may be partly responsible for the observed trend in B(M2) values for increasing Z, other effects may also be present.