Identical superdeformed bands

The phenomenon of identical bands is studied by analyzing the distributions of fractional changes in the dynamical moments of inertia of pairs of bands in superdeformed (SD) nuclei. These distributions are found to exhibit a peak with a centroid at nearly zero. Their widths increase in going from the SD bands in the mass A similar to 150, to the SD bands in the mass similar to 190, and to the normally-deformed bands in the rare-earth region. These differences may be attributed to the weaker pairing correlations and the stabilizing role of intruder orbitals on the structures of SD bands. Precise level lifetimes have been measured for various pairs of identical SD bands in Gd and Dy isotopes. From the derived quadrupole moments, it turns out that members of a given pair of bands have different elongations, suggesting that alignment and deformation effects tend to compensate in identical SD bands.