Close near-degeneracy in a pair of four-quasiparticle bands in Tl-194

A pair of rotational bands associated with the pi h(9/2) circle times nu i(13/2)(-1) configuration at lower spins and with the pi h(9/2) circle times nu i(13/2)(-3) configuration at higher spins is found in Tl-194. The two 4-quasiparticle bands show exceptionally close near-degeneracy in the excitation energies. Furthermore close similarity is also found in their alignments and B(M1)/B(E2) reduced transition probability ratios. Such close near-degeneracy probably indicates chiral geometry in the angular momentum space. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.