Interpretation of correlations between nuclear observables in rare-earth nuclei

We have recently obtained the optimal core-cluster decompositions for an extensive set of heavy even-even nuclei in the rare-earth region. The core-cluster charge products thus deduced are found to be closely correlated with the corresponding B(E2) values. We investigate here the strong resemblance of these correlations to the corresponding Casten plots, and find that the cluster model also predicts a further correlation between core-cluster charge products and the nuclear excitation energies, suggesting a new form of Casten plot for these energies.