Analytically solvable prolate-oblate shape phase transitional description within the SU(3) limit of the interacting boson model

A novel analytically solvable prolate-oblate shape phase transitional description for the SU(3) limit of the interacting boson model is investigated for finite-N as well as in the large-N classical limit. It is shown that the ground state shape phase transition is of first order due to level crossing. Through a comparison of the theoretical predictions with available experimental data for even-even 180Hf, 182-186W, 188-190Os, and 192-198Pt, it is shown that this simple novel description is suitable for a description of the prolate-oblate shape phase transition in these nuclei. © 2012 American Physical Society