Anatomy of nuclear shape transition in the relativistic mean field theory - art. no. 064302

A detailed microscopic study of the temperature dependence of the shapes of some rare-earth nuclei is made in the relativistic mean field theory. Anal yses of the thermal evolution of the single-particle orbitals and their occ upancies leading to the collapse of the deformation are presented. The role of the nonlinear sigma field on the shape transition in different nuclei i s also investigated; in its absence the shape transition is found to be sha rper.