Correlations beyond the mean field in magnesium isotopes: angular momentum projection and configuration mixing Original Research Article

The quadrupole deformation properties of the ground and low-lying excited states of the even–even magnesium isotopes with N ranging from 8 to 28 have been studied in the framework of the angular momentum projected generator coordinate method with the Gogny force. It is shown that the N=8 neutron magic number is preserved (in a dynamical sense) in 20Mg leading to a spherical ground state. For the magic numbers N=20 and N=28 this is not the case and prolate deformed ground states are obtained. The method yields values of the two neutron separation energies which are in much better agreement with experiment than those obtained at the mean field level. It is also obtained that 40Mg is at the neutron dripline. Concerning the results for the excitation energies of the 2+ excited states and their transition probabilities to the ground state we observe a good agreement with the available experimental data. On the theoretical side, we also present a detailed justification of the prescription used for the density dependent part of the interaction in our beyond-mean-field calculations.