The backbending phenomenon in $^{48}$Cr has been investigated using the recently developed Projected Configuration Interaction (PCI) method, in which the deformed intrinsic states are directly associated with shell model (SM) wavefunctions. Two previ
ous explanations, (i) $K=0$ band crossing, and (ii) $K=2$ band crossing have been reinvestigated using PCI, and it was found that both explanations can successfully reproduce the experimental backbending. The PCI wavefunctions in the pictures of $K=0$ band crossing and $K=2$ band crossing are highly overlapped. We conclude that there are no unique intrinsic states associated with the yrast states after backbending in $^{48}$Cr.
