Structure of 240Pu: evidence for octupole phonon condensation?

The expanded level structure of {sup 240}Pu available from the present study highlights the role of strong octupole correlations in this nucleus. In addition to a delayed alignment in the yrast band, the observations include the presence of both I{sup +}{yields}(I-1){sup -} and I{sup -}{yields}(I-1){sup +}E1 transitions linking states of the yrast and negative-parity bands at high spin and the presence of an additional even-spin, positive-parity band deexciting exclusively to the negative-parity sequence. The observations appear to be consistent with expectations based on the recently proposed concept of octupole phonon condensation.