Coulomb excitation of 80 Sr and the limits of the 𝑁 ≈ 𝑍 ≈ 40 island of deformation
The region of 𝑁 ≈ 𝑍 ≈ 40 has long been associated with strongly deformed nuclear configurations. The presence of this strong deformation was recently confirmed through lifetime measurements in 𝑁 ≈ 𝑍 Sr and Zr nuclei. Theoretically, however, these nuclei present a challenge due to the vast valence space required to incorporate all necessary orbitals. Recent state-of-the-art predictions indicate a near axial prolate deformation for 𝑁 = 𝑍 and 𝑁 = 𝑍+2 nuclei between 𝑁 = 𝑍 = 36 and 𝑁 = 𝑍 = 40. In this work we investigate the shores of this island of deformation through a sub-barrier Coulomb excitation study of the 𝑁 = 𝑍+4 nucleus, 80 Sr . Extracting a spectroscopic quadrupole moment of 𝑄 𝑠 ($2^+_1$)= $0.5^{+0.8}_{−0.9}$𝑒b, we find that 80 Sr is inconsistent with significant axial prolate deformation with a significance of 1.5𝜎. This result, albeit with a large uncertainty, indicates that the predicted region of strong prolate deformation around 𝑁 = 𝑍 = 40 is tightly constrained to the quartet of nuclei: 76,78 Sr and 78,80 Zr .