Shape coexistence and mixing of low-lying 0+ states in 96Sr

The low energy excited 02,3+ states in 96Sr are amongst the most prominent examples of shape coexistence across the nuclear landscape. In this work, the neutron [2s1/2]2 content of the 01,2,3+ states in 96Sr was determined by means of the d(95Sr, p) transfer reaction at the TRIUMF-ISAC2 facility using the SHARC and TIGRESS arrays. Spectroscopic factors of 0.19(3) and 0.22(3) were extracted for the 96Sr ground and 1229 keV 0+ states, respectively, by fitting the experimental angular distributions to DWBA reaction model calculations. A detailed analysis of the γ-decay of the isomeric 03+ state was used to determine a spectroscopic factor of 0.33(13). The experimental results are compared to shell model calculations, which predict negligible spectroscopic strength for the excited 0+ states in 96Sr. The strengths of the excited 02,3+ states were also analyzed within a two-level mixing model and are consistent with a mixing strength of a2=0.40(14) and a difference in intrinsic deformations of |Δβ|=0.31(3). These results suggest coexistence of three different configurations in 96Sr and strong shape mixing of the two excited 0+ states.