Relative spins and excitation energies of superdeformed bands in 190Hg: Further evidence for octupole vibration.

An experiment using the Eurogam phase II {gamma}-ray spectrometer confirms the existence of an excited superdeformed (SD) band in {sup 190}Hg and its very unusual decay into the lowest SD band over 3--4 transitions. The energies of the transitions linking the two SD bands have been firmly established, and their angular distributions are consistent with a dipole character. Comparisons with calculations using random-phase approximation indicate that the excited SD band can be interpreted as an octupole-vibrational structure.