Quadrupole collectivity in neutron-deficient Sn nuclei: 104Sn

This thesis is about the study of quadrupole collectivity in the neutron-deficient nucleus 104Sn using intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation. The B(E2; 0+1→ 2+1) value for the excitation of the first 2 + state in 104 Sn has been measured to be 0.180(37) e2b2 relative to the well-known B(E2 ↑) value of 102Cd. This result disagrees by more than one sigma with a recently published measurement [1]. The result indicates that the most modern many-body calculations remain unable to describe the enhanced collectivity below mid-shell in Tin approaching N = Z = 50. The enhanced collectivity is attributed to proton particle-hole configurations beyond the necessarily limited shell-model spaces and suggests the asymmetry of the B(E2 ↑)-value trend around mid-shell to originate from enhanced proton excitations across Z = 50 as N = Z is approached.