SUPERDEFORMATION IN THE QUASI-CONTINUUM - MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF THE EXCITED SUPERDEFORMED BANDS AND THE CORRESPONDING LEVEL DENSITIES

Microscopic calculations of both the normal and the superdeformed rotational bands have been performed for a number of rare-earth nuclei. The "universal" Woods-Saxon potential and the extended Strutinsky method have been used. Excited bands up to a prescribed energy limit E* (usually 2.5 to 3.5 MeV) have been calculated individually by minimizing the corresponding nuclear energies over the quadrupole and hexadecapole deformations. This turns out to be essential, when comparing with experimental results for the known discrete bands. An important influence of the superdeformed neutron (N = 86) shell closure on the microscopically calculated rotational-level densities is illustrated and discussed.