RDDS measurements of collective E2 transition strengths in 122Xe

Abstract Mean lifetimes of 10 excited states in 122 Xe populated via the 108 Pd( 18 O, 4n) reaction were measured by the recoil-distance Doppler-shift (RDDS) technique. The differential decay-curve method (DDCM) was applied to extract the lifetimes from the experimental data. The nuclear deorientation effect on the 2 1 + and 4 1 + levels was taken into account in the lifetime determination by means of an empirical correction. The resulting B ( E 2) values in the ground band are compared to theoretical predictions of collective models. A phenomenological analysis of the E2 transition strengths in the odd-spin negative-parity band supports a quasineutron assignment to that excitation.