High spin studies in discrete-line spectroscopy

The recent development of multiplicity and total-energy filtering techniques is briefly discussed to give a feeling for the status of yrast spectroscopy. The common occurrence of the first backbend is discussed from a pedagogical viewpoint, and the status of data on the second yrast backbend is presented. The measured near-yrast bands in the light Yb nuclei are used to demonstrate the additive nature of the quasiparticle energies and angular momenta and the way in which this additivity can be used to study multi-quasiparticle bands. (Auth.)