Evidence for enhanced collectivity in Te-I-Xe nuclei near the N = Z = 50 double shell closure

Gamma‐ray transitions have been identified for the first time in the extremely neutron‐deficient Tz = 1 nuclide 110Xe and the energies of the three lowest excited states in the ground‐state band have been deduced. A level scheme has also been constructed for the proton‐unbound, Tz = 3/2 nuclide 109I, exhibiting band structures built on g7/2 and h11/2 states in a weakly deformed, triaxial nucleus. In addition, a third band is proposed to be built on a g7/2 orbital coupled to an octupole‐vibrational phonon of the 108Te core. The results were obtained in a recoil‐decay tagging experiment using the 58Ni(54Fe,2n/p2n) reaction at a beam energy of 195 MeV. The experiment was performed using the hi…