Mass and Deformation Dependence of Rotational Damping.

The rotational motion in thermally excited nuclei and its damping at high excitation energy is discussed here with reference to the role of effects beyond mean-field approximation. The experimental results for different mass regions and deformations are presented and compared with a cranked-shell-model calculation including a two-body residual interaction of surface delta type. Altogether, it is found that the dependence of the mixing process on the nuclear mass and deformation is well reproduced by the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]