Decay Out of Low Spin Superdeformed States inPb194by Weak Mixing with Normal Deformed States

Lifetimes of superdeformed (SD) states in ${}_{}{}^{194}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Pb}$ were measured with the recoil distance Doppler shift method. The transition quadrupole moments were found to be constant in the whole SD band down to the lowest observed transition. The lifetime of the spin $10\hslash$ SD state is reduced as compared to the rotational value due to the $\gamma$ decay out of the band. This decay can be described by a very small admixture of normal deformed states to the spin $10\hslash$ SD state. The obtained lifetimes provide strong experimental evidence for the existence of the SD configuration down to very low spin states.