Octupole vibrations and Coriolis-induced mixing in ²⁴⁴Pu, ²⁴⁶Cm and ^248,250Cf

In a series of heavy-ion inelastic scattering experiments at the ATLAS facility at Argonne and using Gammasphere, the K^π=2^- octupole vibrational rotational bands in ²⁴⁴Pu, ²⁴⁶Cm and ^248,250Cf have been populated to high spin, beyond 20 hbar. In all cases, an odd-even staggering pattern was found in the energy of the levels, that increases in amplitude with spin. Both the size of the staggering and its spin dependence appear remarkably consistent with Coriolis-induced two-level mixing with the K^π=0^- band, although the true physics must reflect more indirect interactions involving other orientations of the octupole phonon.