Fully paired-configuration mixing calculations in ⁴⁶Ti and ⁴⁸Cr

The basic theoretical formalism of angular momentum projection based on a particle-number-conserving treatment is elaborated. This method is, for the first time, applied to the middle of the fp shell. Full paired-configuration mixing calculations in the even-even deformed nuclei ⁴⁶Ti and ⁴⁸Cr show that only small parts (weight>0.01) of the configuration components are important for the case of either ground states or excited states. Low-lying excited energy spectra and reduced transition probabilities B(E2) in the K=0 bands can be reproduced well only by admixing very limited fully paired configurations. The improvements in the energy spectra are much more prominent than those without configuration mixing. The calculated B(E2) values are more reasonable in comparison with the available experimental data, as well as those from other models.