Evidences for magicity in superdeformed shapes

Many empirical evidences that point to the existence of preferred magic nucleon numbers for superdeformed (SD) shapes are presented in this paper. We use a simple premise based on the 4-parameter formula fitted using observed γ-rays of SD bands. In particular, plots of γ-ray energy ratios, nuclear softness parameter values and the number of SD bands for given N and Z are used to pinpoint the magicity (N, Z numbers) that are most favoured as the SD magic numbers. This analysis also leads to several new predictions on the occurrence of SD bands specially in neutron-rich nuclei.