GCM study of hexadecapole correlations in superdeformed ¹⁹⁴Hg

The role of hexadecapole correlations in the lowest superdeformed band of $^{194}$Hg is studied by self consistent mean field methods. The generator coordinate method with particle number projection has been applied using Hartree-Fock wave functions defined along three different hexadecapole paths. In all cases, the ground state is not significantly affected by hexadecapole correlations and the energies of the corresponding first excited hexadecapole vibrational states lie high in energy. The effect of rotation is investigated with the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov method and a zero range density-dependent pairing interaction.