Poisson and Porter - Thomas Fluctuations in Off - yrast Rotational Transitions

Fluctuations associated with stretched E2 transitions from high spin levels in nuclei around 168 Yb are investigated by a cranked shell model extended to include residual two-body interactions. It is found that the gamma-ray energies behave like random variables and the energy spectra show the Poisson fluctuation, in the cranked mean field model without the residual interaction. With two-body residual interaction included, discrete transition pattern with unmixed rotational bands is still valid up to around 600 keV above yrast, in good agreement with experiments. At higher excitation energy, a gradual onset of rotational damping emerges. At 1.8 MeV above yrast, complete damping is observed with GOE type fluctuations for both energy levels and transition strengths (Porter-Thomas fluctuations).