Partial conservation law in a schematic single j shell model

Abstract

We report the discovery of a partial conservation law obeyed by a schematic Hamiltonian of two protons and two neutrons in a [Formula: see text] shell. In our Hamiltonian, the interaction matrix element of two nucleons with combined angular momentum [Formula: see text] is linear in [Formula: see text] for even [Formula: see text] and constant for odd [Formula: see text]. It turns out that in some stationary states, the sum of the angular momenta [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] of the proton and neutron pairs is conserved. The energies of these states are given by a linear function of [Formula: see text]. The systematics of their occurrence is described and explained.