Different collectivity in the two signatures of the i13/2 stemming band in ¹⁶⁷Yb

Six lifetimes have been determined in the 5/2⁺ [642] band from vi13/2 parentage in ¹⁶⁷Yb by means of Recoil distance Doppler-shift (RDDS) measurements carried out at the Cologne FN tandem. The deduced transition strengths and the level scheme are reasonably described by Particle plus triaxial rotor model (PTRM) calculations except for the behavior of the quadrupole collectivity in the two signatures of the 5/2⁺[642] band. In that band, the quadrupole collectivity of the favored signature is appreciably larger than this of the unfavored signature. The effect increases with increasing the spin. Naturally, the rigid PTRM cannot explain these features, but the structure of its wave functions suggests a possible solution. It is associated with the enhanced contribution of low-Ω orbitals from vi13/2 parentage in the favored signature compared to the unfavored one. This could selectively increase the deformation of the favored signature band members and give rise to a dynamic shape coexistence taking place between the two signatures which needs quantitative explanation by future theoretical work.