Microscopic description of spherical to γ-soft shape transitions in Ba and Xe nuclei

The rapid transition between spherical and gamma-soft shapes in Ba and Xe nuclei in the mass region A >= 130 is analyzed using excitation spectra and collective wave functions obtained by diagonalization of a five-dimensional Hamiltonian for quadrupole vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom, with parameters determined by constrained self-consistent relativistic mean-field calculations for triaxial shapes. The results reproduce the characteristic evolution of excitation spectra and E2 transition probabilities, and in general, a good agreement with available data is obtained. The calculated spectra display fingerprints of a second-order shape phase transition that can approximately be described by analytic solutions corresponding to the E(5) dynamical symmetry.