Nuclear states and shapes at high spin

As angular momentum is added to a nucleus, the balance of forces acting upon it to determine its shape, moment of inertia, mode of rotation, and type of level structure may undergo a series of changes. At relatively low spins a deformed nucleus will rotate collectively, and one may see the effect of Coriolis antipairing in gradually increasing the moment of inertia. Around spin 12 to 16 h-bar there may be an abrupt change (backbending) when a pair of high-j nucleons unpairs and the nucleons align with the axis of rotation; this process allows the nucleus to slow its collective rotation. This process, the start of a sharing of angular momentum between single-particle motion and the collective rotation, gives a lower total energy and corresponds to a change toward triaxiality in the shape of the nucleus. At much higher spins discrete γ-ray transitions can no longer be observed. This is the regime of continuum spectra; all the information on these high-spin states (to 65 h-bar) is contained in these continuum cascades. Knowledge is accumulating on how to study these spectra, experimentally and theoretically, and new techniques offer promise of revealing a great deal of information about the shapes and properties of very high spin states. 71 references, 34 figures