Discrete spectroscopy in 180Os at high spins

New information on rotational bands in 180Os was obtained from a discrete spectroscopy experiment in which the final nucleus was populated through the 150Nd(36S,6n) reaction at 177 MeV. A new strongly-coupled rotational band starting at a relatively high excitation energy was found. The observation and placement of the 185.6 keV in the level scheme gives strong support to a hypothetical 2-quasineutron configuration assigned to the 7- isomeric bands in 180Os and the isotone 178W. Band mixing between the (-,1)1 and (-,1)3 bands of same parity and signature was observed, and the interaction strength was estimated from experimental branching ratios. The authors' results confirm a previous assignment for the yrast and yrare sequences in this nucleus. With the identification of new transitions above the states with I ≅ 24, previously assigned bands had to be revised, with the result that the second band crossing vanishes. 23 refs., 3 figs