Magnetic rotation and chiral symmetry breaking

The deformed mean field of nuclei exhibits various geometrical and dynamica l symmetries which manifest themselves as various types of rotational and d ecay patterns. Most of the symmetry operations considered so far have been defined for a situation wherein the angular momentum coincides with one of the principal axes and the principal axis cranking may be invoked. New poss ibilities arise with the observation of rotational features in weakly defor med nuclei and now interpreted as magnetic rotational bands. More than 120 MR bands have now been identified by filtering the existing data. We presen t a brief overview of these bands. The total angular momentum vector in suc h bands is tilted away from the principal axes. Such a situation gives rise to several new possibilities including breaking of chiral symmetry as disc ussed recently by Frauendorf. We present the outcome of such symmetries and their possible experimental verification. Some possible examples of chiral bands are presented.