In the first part of the article we present the identification of ${\mathrm{C}}_{2\mathrm{v}}$ (water molecule) symmetry in ${}^{236}\mathrm{U}$ nucleus employing existing experimental information using a model-independent approach. This represents for the first time experimental evidence of the molecular symmetry in very heavy nuclei and promotes further exploration of molecular symmetries in subatomic physics. The second part describes the realistic phenomenological mean-field theory approach as the background of the large-scale mesh calculations in multidimensional deformation spaces aiming at the theory indications for the nuclear ${\mathrm{C}}_{2\mathrm{v}}$ symmetry. We discuss and illustrate the strong and the weak points of the algorithms, the uncertainties of the theory predictions as well as the issue of the most probable (dynamical equilibrium) deformations obtained by employing the Bohr collective model and deformation-dependent collective inertia tensor.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Nuclear structure & decays