Microscopic description of quadrupole collectivity in neutron-rich nuclei across the N=126 shell closure

The quadrupole collectivity in Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Er, Yb, Hf and W nuclei with neutron numbers 122 <= N <= 156 is studied, both at the mean field level and beyond, using the Gogny energy density functional. Besides the robustness of the N = 126 neutron shell closure, it is shown that the onset of static deformations in those isotopic chains with increasing neutron number leads to an enhanced stability and further extends the corresponding two-neutron drip lines far beyond what could be expected from spherical calculations. Independence of the mean-field predictions with respect to the particular version of the Gogny energy density functional employed is demonstrated by comparing results based on the D1S and D1M parameter sets. Correlations beyond mean field are taken into account in the framework of the angular momentum projected generator coordinate method calculation. It is shown that N = 126 remains a robust neutron magic number when dynamical effects are included. The analysis of the collective wave functions, average deformations and excitation energies indicate that, with increasing neutron number, the zero-point quantum corrections lead to dominant prolate configurations in the 0(1)(+), 0(2)(+), 2(1)(+) and 2(2)(+) states of the studied nuclei. Moreover, those dynamical deformation effects provide an enhanced stability that further supports the mean-field predictions, corroborating a shift of the r-process path to higher neutron numbers. Beyond mean-field calculations provide a smaller shell gap at N = 126 than the mean-field one in good agreement with previous theoretical studies. However, the shell gap still remains strong enough in the two-neutron drip lines.