Microscopic Mechanism of Large Fluctuation in Odd-Even Differences in Moments of Inertia for Actinide Nuclei

The experimental large fluctuation in odd-even differences in moments of inertia of deformed actinide nuclei is investigated using the particle-number conserving (PNC) method for treating the cranked shell model with monopole and quadrupole pairing interactions. PNC calculations show that the large odd-even difference in moments of inertia mainly comes from the interference contributions j (μν) from particles in high j intruder orbitals μ and ν quite near the Fermi surface, which have no counterpart in the BCS formalism. The effective monopole and quadrupole pairing interaction strengths are determined to fit the experimental odd-even differences in binding energies and bandhead moments of inertia. The experimental results for the variation of moments of inertia with rotational frequency ω are reproduced well by the PNC calculation. The nearly identical experimental moments of inertia between 236 U(gsb) and 238 U(gsb) at low frequencies ℏω⩽0.20 MeV are also reproduced quite well.