Octupole deformation and Ra puzzle in reflection asymmetric covariant density functional theory

Abstract

Reflection asymmetric covariant density functional theory(CDFT) based on the point-coupling interaction is established on a two-center harmonic-oscillator basis and applied to investigate the Ra puzzle, i.e., the anomalous enhancement of the residual proton-neutron interactions for Ra isotopes around N=135. The octupole deformation and shape evolution in the Ra and Rn isotopes are examined in the potential energy surfaces in(beta2, beta3) plane by the constrained reflection asymmetric calculations. The residual proton-neutron interactions extracted from the double difference of the binding energies for Ra isotopes are compared with the data as well as the axial and the triaxial calculations. It is found that the octupole deformation is responsible for the Ra puzzle in the microscopic CDFT.