Study of shape coexistence in the very neutron deficient nucleus Hg-176

In-beam γ-ray and γ–γ coincidence measurements have been made for the very neutron deficient nucleus 176Hg using the recoil-decay tagging (RDT) technique. The irregular yrast sequence observed to I=10ℏ indicates that the prolate intruder band, seen in heavier Hg isotopes near the neutron midshell, is crossing the nearly spherical ground-state band of 176Hg above I=6ℏ. peerReviewed