Effect of Nuclear Rotation on the Pairing Correlation

The effect of nuclear rotation on the pairing force in the low excited states of deformed nuclei was investigated by using the generalized Hartree-Fock method (used in superconductivity theory) to study the quantum mechanics of the effect for a reference system rotating with a rotational angular momentum I. For I greater than a critical value I/sub c/, the pairing disappears and the particles perform an approximately independent motion in the average potential, resulting in an intrinsic structure orthogonal to the ground state and in rotational energies similar to those of a free Fermi gas. The I/sub c/ is estimated to be approximately l2 for A approximately 180 and approximately 18 for A approximately 238, which are only slightly higher than the highest rotational states reported for these nuclei. (D.L.C.)