Possible experimental evidence for the presence of double octupole states in 240Pu

Excited states in the 240Pu nucleus have been studied by means of the (p,t) reaction using the Q3D spectrometer and the focal plane detector from Munich. The comparison between experimental angular distributions and the DWBA calculations allowed the extraction of relative two-neutron transfer strengths. These observables may reveal important information about the structure of different states. The experimental two neutron strength for the 0+2 and 0+3 states is found in good agreement with the predictions of the IBA model, confirming the double octupole nature for the 0+2 state proposed in the previous studies.