Effect of the Coriolis force on atomic nuclei with N=100

This article deals with the study of the isomeric fission products in the spontaneous fission of Cf²⁵². Gd¹⁵⁴, containing 100 neutrons, is one of them. Neighbouring nuclei containing also 100 neutrons have a similar structure to Gd¹⁵⁴ and present the same type of isomeric state at around 1 MeV but the lifetime of these isomeric states that have been measured in the experiment, can vary over 3 order of magnitude according to the nucleus. The analogy with geophysics in which the earth rotation combines with the movement of bodies on its surface through the Coriolis force, shows that a Coriolis force exists at the nucleus scale: the motion of nucleons inside the nucleus combines with the rotation of the nucleus itself. The theoretical interpretation of the experimental data shows that the Coriolis force is responsible for the strong dispersion of the lifetimes of the isomeric states. (A.C.)