Count fluctuation analysis in the triaxial strongly deformed potential well of ¹⁶³Lu

High-spin properties of the triaxial strongly deformed potential well in Lu-163 at excitation energies above resolvable bands have been investigated. Gated E-gamma-E-gamma, spectra display clear ridges with moments of inertia corresponding to those observed for the discrete strongly deformed bands. A fluctuation analysis of the ridges yields a number of two-step paths of, approximate to 40 and approximate to 20, when gating cm triaxial strongly or normally deformed bands, respectively. These results show that a potential well at large deformation coexists with the normally deformed well, and indicate a mixing between states in the two wells at higher excitation energy.