Numerical simulations of the cascades of the nuclei 152,154,156Dy with self-consistent collective strength functions

Mean-field theories predict phase transitions in nuclei, such as a transition from collective to oblate shapes. However, fluctuations in the finite nucleus smear out the transition, and it is an interesting problem in mesoscopic physics to search for a remnant signature of the phase transition. Temperature-dependent Hartree-Fock theory predicts that the collective-to-oblate phase transition boundaries occur in a domain that can be favorably probed in experiments in 152,154,156Dy. These calculations were motivated by our past measurements of the quasicontinuum E2 spectra in these nuclei