Nuclear physics notation

[some_dude]

Quick question: what does the notation π6³5¹ν7² in nuclear physics mean? Google wasn't of any help.

[Minerva]

The above expression doesn't make any sense, it's not any intelligible notation I've ever seen.

Did you transcribe it correctly? Maybe post some of the surrounding context material, or a scan or image of the notation?

[some_dude]

It's from the article "extreme deformations at high spin" by P.J. Twin. He uses that notation all the time unfortunately. Here's an example of the context:

Several excited SD bands have been observed in ¹⁵¹Tb. These include 2 signature partners identified as low-N neutron excitations based on the ¹⁵⁰Tb π6³ν7¹ configuration, and a proton excitation from the 6₃ to the 6₄ orbital.

BTW the "v" is a nu.

[Mr_Rose]

Looks a lot like electron orbital notation, but it's a bit off...either he's talking about molecules (doubtful) or he's talking about nuclear (baryonic?) orbitals which I know even less about.

[Tass]

Looks a lot like electron orbital notation, but it's a bit off...either he's talking about molecules (doubtful) or he's talking about nuclear (baryonic?) orbitals which I know even less about.

It is pretty clear that it is about nuclear orbitals.

[Lukeje]

Googling superdeformed band notation gives a couple of hits, most notably this which gives an explanation of the symbol of a band in Gd.

[some_dude]

Thanks, so π6³ν7¹ means that there are 3 protons in the nuclear shell with oscillator quantum number N=6 and a single neutron in the shell with N=7. Apparently I need to work on my Google skills.