Nuclear level densities and ?-ray strength functions in 120,124Sn isotopes: Impact of Porter-Thomas fluctuations

Nuclear level densities (NLDs) and gamma -ray strength functions (GSFs) of 120,124Sn have been extracted with the Oslo method from proton-gamma coincidences in the (p, p'gamma ) reaction. The functional forms of the GSFs and NLDs have been further constrained with the Shape method by studying primary gamma -transitions to the ground and first excited states. The NLDs demonstrate good agreement with the NLDs of 116,118,122Sn isotopes measured previously. Moreover, the extracted partial NLD of 1- levels in 124Sn is shown to be in fair agreement with those deduced from spectra of relativistic Coulomb excitation in forward-angle inelastic proton scattering. The experimental NLDs have been applied to estimate the magnitude of the Porter-Thomas (PT) fluctuations. Within the PT fluctuations, we conclude that the GSFs for both isotopes can be considered to be independent of initial and final excitation energies, in accordance with the generalized Brink-Axel hypothesis. Particularly large fluctuations observed in the Shape-method GSFs present a considerable contribution to the uncertainty of the method and may be one of the reasons for deviations from the Oslo-method strength at low gamma -ray energies and low values of the NLD (below eta 1 x 103-2 x 103 MeV-1).