Triaxiality - recent progress in mass 160 region

Triaxiality may affect various properties of the nucleus, such as the quasiparticle excitation energy, the relationship between signature partner bands, the electromagnetic decay strength between bands, etc. However, these effects can also be caused by other phenomena. On the other hand, quantized wobbling-phonon excitation, characterized by a sequence of rotational bands with increasing number of wobbling quanta, is a predicted mode uniquely related to triaxiality of nuclear shape [A. Bohr and B.R. Mottelson, Nuclear Structure, Vol. II, Benjamin, New York, 1975]. The search for experimental signatures of triaxial nuclear shapes has proven to be very challenging.