Novel structure for magnetic rotation bands in ⁶⁰Ni

The self-consistent tilted axis cranking relativistic mean-field theory based on a point-coupling interaction has been established and applied to investigate systematically the newly observed shears bands in 60Ni. The tilted angles, deformation parameters, energy spectra, and reduced M1 and E2 transition probabilities have been studied in a fully microscopic and self-consistent way for various configurations and rotational frequencies. It is found the competition between the configurations and the transitions from the magnetic to the electric rotations have to be considered in order to reproduce the energy spectra as well as the band crossing phenomena. The tendency of the experimental electromagnetic transition ratios B(M1)/B(E2) is in a good agreement with the data, in particular, the B(M1) values decrease with increasing spin as expected for the shears mechanism, whose characteristics are discussed in detail by investigating the various contributions to the total angular momentum as well. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.