Ultrafast-timing lifetime measurements in 94Ru and 96Pd: Breakdown of the seniority scheme in N=50 isotones

The advanced time-delayed gamma gamma(t) method has been applied to determine half-lives of low-lying states in the N = 50 isotones Ru-94 and Pd-96. The inferred experimental E2 strengths for the 4(+) -> 2(+) transitions in the two nuclei show a dramatic deviation with respect to the shell model predictions in the (f(5/2), p, g(9/2)) proton hole space in Sn-100. The anomalous behavior can be ascribed to a breakdown of the seniority quantum number in the pi g(9/2)(n) configuration due to particle-hole excitations across the N = Z = 50 shell as confirmed by large-scale shell model calculations.