Questioning the wobbling interpretation of low-spin bands in γ-soft nuclei within the interacting boson-fermion model

An alternative interpretation of the recently reported low-lying excited bands in gamma-soft odd-mass nuclei as wobbling bands is presented in terms of the interacting boson-fermion model. The model Hamiltonian is determined based on the mean-field calculations with the nuclear energy density functionals. The predicted mixing ratios of the Delta I = 1 electric quadrupole to magnetic dipole transition rates between yrast bands and those yrare bands previously interpreted as wobbling bands in Pr-135, La-133, Xe-127, and Pd-105 are consistently smaller in magnitude than the experimental values on which the wobbling interpretation is based. These calculated mixing ratios indicate predominant magnetic character in agreement with the new experimental data. The earlier wobbling assignments are severely questioned.