Octupole correlations in the structure of 0(2)(+) bands in the N=88 nuclei Sm-150 and Gd-152

Knowledge of the exact microscopic structure of the 0(1)(+) ground state and first excited 0(2)(+) state in Sm-150 is required to understand the branching of double beta decay to these states from Nd-150. The detailed spectroscopy of Sm-150 and Gd-152 has been studied using (alpha, xn) reactions and the gamma-ray arrays AFRODITE and JUROGAM II. Consistently strong E1 transitions are observed between the excited K-pi = 0(2)(+) bands and the lowest negative parity bands in both nuclei. These results are discussed in terms of the possible permanent octupole deformation in the first excited K-pi = 0(2)(+) band and also in terms of the "tidal wave" model of Frauendorf. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.87.044333