Systematic behavior of octupole strengths in 46,48,50Ti.

The level structure of /sup 48/Ti has been studied by proton inelastic scattering using a 65-MeV polarized beam. Spin and parity assignments for the excited states below 8 MeV of excitation in /sup 48/Ti were made by the distorted-wave Born approximation analysis. The distributions of the excitation strengths for the 2/sup +/, 3/sup -/, and 4/sup +/ states were obtained. The energy-weighted sum rule fractions were found to be 7.12%, 9.35%, and 1.22% for the 2/sup +/, 3/sup -/, and 4/sup +/ states, respectively. The distribution of the octupole excitation strengths in /sup 48/Ti is compared with those in /sup 46/Ti and /sup 50/Ti. The excitation strength corresponding to the first J/sup ..pi../ = 3/sup -/ state in /sup 50/Ti was found to be fragmented in /sup 48/Ti, and this fragmentation was shown to be consistent with the prediction by a simple liquid drop model for deformed nuclei. The systematic behavior of the 3/sup -/ states below 1(h/2..pi..)..omega.. excitation in the Ti isotopes shows that the fine structure of the 3/sup -/ excitation strength distribution is closely correlated to the quadrupole deformation of the ground state.