Low energy octupole resonance in /sup 46/Ti studied by inelastic proton scattering at 65 MeV

The level structure of the low-energy octupole resonance in /sup 46/Ti has been studied by inelastic scattering using a 65 MeV polarized proton beam. The excitation strength and distribution of the 2+, 3-, and 4+ states below E/sub x/∼8.0 MeV have been determined. The energy weighted sum rule fractions of 10.8%, 11.7%, and 1.98% are found to be exhausted for the quadrupole, octupole, and hexadecapole transitions, respectively. No clear bump of the low-energy octupole resonance strength isolated from the first 3- states has been observed. All the 3- states dispersed in the region of E/sub x/ = 3--8 MeV seem to form one bump in /sup 46/Ti. It is suggested that the fragmentation of a collective 3- state is due to the coupling effect of the octupole excitation with the static deformation of the /sup 46/Ti ground state, being in qualitative agreement with a random phase approximation calculation