Microscopic theory of nuclear collective rotation. V. Connection between nuclear moments of inertia and the definition of a body-fixed frame

For pt.IV see ibid., vol.6, p.1347-58 (1980). Various methods for calculating nuclear moments of inertia are investigated from the point of view of their possible connection with special choices of collective variables. The theoretical tool for this investigation is the method of specific decoupling. For any definition of the body-fixed frame, the authors method provides, in an elegant way, a well defined expression for the moment of inertia. The internal degrees of freedom are described using intrinsic densities and intrinsic wavefunctions. Several frequently used formulae for calculating the moment of inertia can be traced back to specific definitions of the internal frame. The extremum principle of specific decoupling makes possible a very lucid evaluation of the magnitudes of these moments of inertia relative to each other as well as with respect to the corresponding values of the rigid and the irrotational moments of inertia.