Nuclear structure of Te isotopes beyond neutron magic number N=82

Abstract

Newly observed decay schemes of the nuclei Sb-137 and Sb-138 are reported. The neutron-rich Sb isotopes were produced by the in-flight fragmentation of a U-238 primary beam with an energy of 345 MeV/nucleon. Several new excited states of Te-137 with tentatively assigned spin-parities of (5/2(-)), (9/2(-)), and (7/2) have been established which play an important role in the evolution of neutron levels beyond N = 82. The study of the beta decay of Sb-138 led to a considerable extension of the level scheme of Te-138 including the identification of several nonyrast states. The structure of Te-137 and Te-138 is discussed on the basis of large-scale shell-model calculations performed using two different effective interactions.