| Abstract: | A systematic study of the depopulation of superdeformed rotational bands in neutron-deficient  nuclei has been performed. We observed a correlation between the rotational frequency at which the decay out of the superdeformed bands takes place and the difference between the transition quadrupole moments of states in the superdeformed bands and high-lying states with  normal deformation. The observation may constitute direct experimental evidence that the commonly adopted tunneling picture for the decay of superdeformed states is valid.Received: 25 September 2003, Revised: 20 July 2004, Published online: 17 August 2004PACS: 21.10.Ky Electromagnetic moments - 21.60.Ev Collective modelsK. Lagergren: Present address: Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL-32306, USA |
