Further confirmation of octupole deformation in $^{144}$Ba

The energy levels in $^{144}$Ba have been studied with our high statistics $5.7 \times 10^{11}$ triple- and higher- fold coincidence data taken with Gammasphere. There are reinforcing shell gaps for $\beta _2= 0.13$ for $Z=56$ and $Z=88$, so octupole deformation is expected in $^{144}$Ba. The even parity ground state band is seen to high spin with crossing $E1$ transitions from an odd spin, negative parity band earlier, the expected $s_i=1$ band. Limited evidence for the expected $s_i=-1 $ band with the same spins and opposite parities has been reported. $s_i=-1$ band has been clearly established now with the expected crossing transitions between the even and odd spins members. In addition, numbers of new crossing transitions in the $s_i=1$ band and between the $s_i=-1$ band and $+1$ are seen. These data firmly established the octupole deformation of $^{144}$Ba. Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grants and Contract Nos. DE-FG05-88ER40407 and DE-AC03- 76SF00098.