A heavy-ion reaction can populate nuclear states of very high angular momentum with values of the order of I=60 achievable. The reaction produces such configurations with a considerable internal excitation, but the emission of a few neutrons reduces the excitation energy effectively while not decreasing the spin by much. At sufficiently high spin the pairing is destroyed completely and the rigid-body moment of inertia becomes a good approximation. Even in this regime, however, the single-particle structure remains important and shell effects can be studied in terms of a rotating phenomenological shell model. On the theoretical side the cranked Nilsson strutinsky model has proved to be a successful tool to describe rapidly rotating nucleus. Indeed, this model gives a microscopic description of the influence of rotation on single-particle motion. This paper will concentrate on introduction to the cranked Nilsson strutinsky model in details. First, we explain the cranking model and the rotating liquid-drop model, then introduce the shell correction method. Also, we describe terminating bands, which show a continuous transition from high collectivity to a pure particle-hole state.

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