Level spin and moments of inertia in superdeformed nuclei near A = 194

Experimental transition energies in the superdeformed (SD) bands near A = 190 are least-squares fit to rotational model formulae in order to extract level spin. The data set includes 16 SD bands, which show no evidence of either irregular behavior near the bottom of the bands or abrupt angular momentum alignment at low ℎω. The 9 transitions lowest in energy in each band are well described by the formulae. The fitted spin of the final state in the γ-ray cascade is within ±0.1ℎ of an integer or half-odd integer for 13 of the bands. The weight of the evidence suggests that meaningful level spins corresponding to these transitions can be inferred. The moment of inertia at ω = 0 is correlated, with I = 88.3(5)ℎ2/MeV and I = 93.4(5)ℎ2/MeV for the strong and weak bands, respectively. 19 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs