The superdeformation phenomenon in atomic nuclei

After the discovery of discrete rotational bands corresponding to superdeformed nuclei with spin around 60h, the study of the structure of these nuclei over the last five years has witnessed a significant expansion in physical understanding with the emergence of new phenomena and in a technical development with the construction of sophisticated apparatus to examine these nuclei. On the eve of the approaching operation of news detectors such as EUROGAM resulting from a French-British collaboration,or the American GAMMASPHERE, this article discusses the present state of knowledge on superdeformation and exposes the theoretical basis as well as recent experimental results in the field