  A reflection-asymmetric deformed oscillator potential is analysed from the
classical and quantum mechanical point of view. The connection between
occurrence of shell structures and classical periodic orbits is studied using
the ''removal of resonances method'' in a classical analysis. In this
approximation, the effective single particle potential becomes separable and
the frequencies of the classical trajectories are easily determined. It turns
out that the winding numbers calculated in this way are in good agreement with
the ones found from the corresponding quantum mechanical spectrum using the
particle number dependence of the fluctuating part of the total energy. When
the octupole term is switched on it is found that prolate shapes are stable
against chaos whereas spherical and oblate cases become chaotic. An attempt is
made to explain this difference in the quantum mechanical context by looking at
the distribution of exceptional points which results from the matrix structure
of the respective Hamiltonians. In a similar way we analyse the modified
Nilsson model and discuss its consequences for nuclei and metallic clusters.
