First investigation of nuclear structure physics using DURGA facility in Dhruva

Nuclear structure physics in the low-spin regime has remained a fertile ground to investigate and unearth exotic nuclear phenomena, such as, β and γ vibrations, multi-phonon excitations, octupole vibration, and even hexadecapole shape. The advent of high-efficiency γ-ray spectrometers with multiple types of detectors, coupled with modern day state-of-the-art electronics and data acquisition system have revitalized the research in low-spin nuclear structure physics. The analysis of low-spin states in the deformed ¹⁶⁴Dy nucleus has revealed several new γ rays. The newly observed γ rays have been placed in the level scheme of ¹⁶⁴Dy nucleus based on γ-γ coincidence relationship. The K^π = 2⁻ octupole band structure, which is the lowest collective octupole band among the subset of collective octupole excitations in ¹⁶⁴Dy, has been affirmed. Electric dipole (E1) transitions, connecting the excited states in this octupole band and the members of the ground band have been observed. The |∆J|= 0, 1 transitions, connecting the states in the octupole band and those in the 1-phonon positive parity γ-vibrational structure, have been observed. The magnetic dipole (M1) transitions, connecting the two signatures in the 1-phonon positive parity γ-vibrational band have been newly observed