The decay of a four-quasiparticle isomer in 176Ta

A four-quasiparticle isomer in 176 Ta has been found which decays with T 1/2 = 3.8 ± 0.4 μs. The decay proceeds to a compressed rotational band which has been tentatively assigned a K π = 8 − , 9/2 − [514) p + 7/2 + [633] n configuration with a large admixture of the K π = 9 − , 9/2 − [514] p + 9/2 + [624] n configuration. This band decays, in turn, to the K π = 7 + , 9/2 − [514] p + 5/2 − [512] n bandhead. The isomer probably has I π = 13 − and two possible configurations for its structure have been suggested.