New Information on the Occurrence of the O(6) Symmetry in Nuclei

New γγ-coincidence relations and E2 decay transition rates in the isotopes 194,196Pt have been deduced from γ-ray spectroscopy experiments using the Gammasphere spectrometer in projectile-Coulomb excitation reactions of beams of 194,196Pt ions provided by the ATLAS accelerator facility. The results give access to observables that are crucial for a classification of excited quadrupole-collective states in terms of quantum numbers associated with the analytically solvable O(6) dynamical symmetry of the interacting boson model. The data on 196Pt corroborate the qualitative pattern of excitation energies and E2 transition rates expected from the O(6) solution but the excitation energies significantly deviate from it on a quantitative level.