Study of $^{44}$Ti in a Mixed--Symmetry Basis

The structure of $^{44}$Ti is studied in an oblique-basis that includes spherical and SU(3) shell-model basis states. The results show that the oblique-basis concept is applicable, even though the strong spin-orbit interaction, which breaks the SU(3) symmetry, generates significant splitting of the single-particle levels. Specifically, a model space that includes a few SU(3) irreducible representations (irreps), namely, the leading (12,0) and next to the leading (10,1) irreps -- including spin S=0 and 1 configurations of the latter, plus spherical shell-model configurations (SSMC) that have at least two valence nucleons confined to the $f_{7/2}$ orbit -- the SM(2) case, yield results that are comparable to SSMC with at least one valence nucleon confined to the $f_{7/2}$ orbit -- the SM(3) case.