A detailed microscopic study of the temperature dependence of the shapes of
some rare-earth nuclei is made in the relativistic mean field theory. Analyses
of the thermal evolution of the single-particle orbitals and their occupancies
leading to the collapse of the deformation are presented. The role of the
non-linear σ−field on the shape transition in different nuclei is also
investigated; in its absence the shape transition is found to be sharper.Comment: REVTEX file (13pages), 12 figures, Phys. Rev. C(in press),
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