Competing structures in nuclei near closed shells. Final report, September 1, 1993--November 30, 1996

This report summarizes the progress made during this period. A series of experiments on levels in {sup 144}Nd have led to the identification of quadrupole-octupole coupled states in the nucleus. These experiments included the measurement of excited level lifetimes using the GRID technique, the measurement of transition conversion coefficients and the measurement of weak transition intensities. A fast electronic timing system has been set-up at Tennessee Tech. This system can be used to measure nuclear excited state lifetimes in the range from 5 ps upward. A new variation of the centroid shift method has been developed which eliminates the need to determine a prompt position. This centroid difference method employs both forward and reverse gating of gamma cascades to generate two timing spectra