Search for superdeformed bands in {sup 154}Dy

The island of superdeformation in the vicinity of the doubly magic {sup 152}Dy yrast superdeformed (SD) band is thought to be well understood in the framework of cranked mean field calculations. In particular, the calculations suggested that in {sup 154}Dy there should be no yrast or near yrast SD minimum in the 40-60 h spin range, where SD bands in this mass region are thought to be {sup 153}Dy nucleus, it is populated. However, with the presence of five SD bands in the neighboring necessary to ascertain if the addition of one single neutron diminishes the importance of shell effects to the extent that superdeformation can no longer be sustained. In an experiment utilizing the increased resolving power of the early implementation phase of Gammasphere, the reaction {sup 122}Sn({sup 36}S,4n) at 165 MeV was employed to populate high spin states in {sup 154}Dy. In a four-day run with 36 detectors, over one billion triple and higher fold coincidence events were recorded. One new SD band was identified and was assigned to {sup 154}Dy. From comparisons with the Im{sup (2)} moments of inertia of the SD bands in {sup 152}Dy and {sup 153}Dy, a configuration based on (514)9/2{sup 2} neutrons coupledmore » to the {sup 152}Dy SD core was proposed. One unexpected and as yet unexplained feature of this new SD band is that the transition energies are almost identical to those of an excited SD band in {sup 153}Dy. It is also worth noting that the feeding of the yrast states is similar to that achieved by the deexcitation from the ensemble of all entry states in the reaction. This observation emphasizes the statistical nature of the decay-out process. A paper reporting these results was accepted for publication.« less