Development of magnetic rotation in light Gd nuclei; study of 142Gd

High-spin states in 142Gd have been populated by means of the 99Ru(48Ti, 2p3n) reaction at 240 MeV and investigated with the γ-spectrometer EUROBALL III and the charged-particle detector array ISIS. The features of four dipole bands have been determined and compared with tilted-axis cranking model calculations indicating that they are magnetic rotational bands. A transition from regular to irregular bands has been found approaching N = 82 demonstrating that this is a general phenomenon in nuclei near a double-shell closure.