Octupole excitations in light xenon and barium nuclei

Abstract
The properties of light even and odd Xe and Ba nuclei (N and Z close to 56) with respect to octupole deformation have been studied by the Hartree-Fock+BCS and the generator coordinate methods. None of the considered nuclei possess a stable static octupole deformation. However, we find that octupole collectivity is enhanced by dynamical correlations. Cranked shell model calculations indicate that octupole effects should persist at least up to spins around 10ħ.