Novel triaxial structure in low-lying states of neutron-rich nuclei around A ≈ 100

Background: In recent years, the study of triaxiality in the low-lying states of atomic nuclei with transition character or shape coexistence has been of great interest. Previous studies indicate that the neutron-rich nuclei in the A similar to 100 mass region with Z similar to 40, N similar to 60 serve as good grounds for examining the role of triaxiality in nuclear low-lying states. Purpose: The aim of this work is to provide a microscopic study of low-lying states for nuclei in the A similar to 100 mass regions and to examine in detail the role of triaxiality in the shape-coexistence phenomena and the variation of shape with the isospin and spin values at the beyond mean-field level. Method: The starting point of our method is a set of relativistic mean-field plus BCS wave functions generated with a constraint on triaxial deformations (beta, gamma). The excitation energies and electric multipole transition strengths of low-lying states are calculated by solving a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian (5DCH) with parameters determined by the mean-field wave functions. Results: The low-lying states of Mo isotopes and of N = 60 isotones in the A similar to 100 mass region are calculated. The results indicate that triaxiality is essential to reproduce the data of excitation energies and electric quadrupole transition strengths in low-lying states and plays an important role in the shape evolution as a function of nucleon number. However, the decrease of nuclear collectivity with the increase of angular momentum in neutron-rich Mo isotopes has not been reproduced. Conclusions: The evolution of nuclear collectivity in the low-lying states of neutron-rich nuclei in the A similar to 100 mass region as a function of nucleon number is governed by the novel triaxial structure. However, the mechanism that governs the variation of nuclear shape with spin in Mo isotopes remains unclear and deserves further investigation by taking into account the effects other than the collective motions.