Identification Of Low-Energy Isovector Octupole States In (144) Nd

Recently, first candidates for low-lying isovector states in the octupole sector were suggested. The unambiguous identification of those states will contribute to the decomposition of the octupole-octupole residual interaction in an isoscalar and isovector part. This will help us understand the octupole degree of freedom. In (144) Nd the 3(-) state at 2778 keV is a good candidate for such a "mixed-symmetry" octupole state. In order to clarify the nature of this state, a 143Nd(n, gamma)- experiment was conducted with the EXILL- setup. Following neutron capture the 3(-) states are populated and EXILL provides the opportunity to determine the multipole-mixing ratios of the 3(i)(-) -> 3(1)(-) transitions. For the transition from the "mixedsymmetry" octupole state to the symmetric 3(1)(-) state we expect a strong M 1 component.