Inelastic $alpha$ scattering on 16O is studied at 400 MeV by using an ice target. Near the 4-alpha breakup threshold of 14.4 MeV, a broad peak is observed at an excitation energy of 13.6+/-0.2 MeV with a width of 0.6+/-0.2 MeV. The spin-parity is estimated to be 0+ from the momentum-transfer dependence. The observed width is significantly larger than those of the neighboring 0+ states indicating a state with a well-developed alpha cluster structure. The magnitude of the cross section is sensitive to the density distribution of the constituent alpha clusters. The observed cross section is consistent with the theoretical prediction for the alpha cluster condensed state characterized by its dilute density distribution with a large root-mean-square radius of about 4.3 fm.
The $mathrm{^{16}O}(alpha, alpha^{prime})$ reaction was studied at $theta_{lab} = 0^circ$ at an incident energy of $textrm{E}_{lab}$ = 200 MeV using the K600 magnetic spectrometer at iThemba LABS. Proton and $alpha$-decay from the natural parity states were observed in a large-acceptance silicon-strip detector array at backward angles. The coincident charged particle measurements were used to characterize the decay channels of the $0_{6}^{+}$ state in $mathrm{^{16}O}$ located at $E_{x} = 15.097(5)$ MeV. This state is identified by several theoretical cluster calculations to be a good candidate for the 4-$alpha$ cluster state. The results of this work suggest the presence of a previously unidentified resonance at $E_{x}approx15$ MeV that does not exhibit a $0^{+}$ character. This unresolved resonance may have contaminated previous observations of the $0_{6}^{+}$ state.
We conducted the coincidence measurement of $alpha$ particles inelastically scattered from ${}^{20}$Ne at $0^{circ}$ and decay charged particles in order to search for the alpha-particle condensed state. We compared the measured excitation-energy spectrum and decay branching ratio with the statistical-decay-model calculations, and found that the newly observed states at $E_x$ = 23.6, 21.8, and 21.2 MeV in ${}^{20}$Ne are strongly coupled to a candidate for the 4$alpha$ condensed state in ${}^{16}$O. This result presents the first strong evidence that these states are the candidates for the 5$alpha$ condensed state.
The experimental angular distributions for 20Ne+16O elastic transfer are reanalyzed using different forms of potential both phenomenological and semi-microscopic. The significant increase in cross sections at backward hemisphere due to the contribution of alphacluster transfer is investigated using the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) method. The spectroscopic amplitude (SA) for the configuration 20Ne as consisting of 16O (core) and an alpha-particle orbiting this core at the different concerned energies is extracted. The agreement between the experimental data and theoretical calculations using the two considered approaches is reasonably good.
The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction $^{40}$Ca+$^{12}$C at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce excited states candidates to $alpha$-particle condensation. Complete kinematic characterization of individual decay events, made possible by a high-granularity 4$pi$ charged particle multi-detector, reveals that 7.5$pm$4.0% of the particle decays of the Hoyle state correspond to direct decays in three equal-energy $alpha$-particles.
Dissipative 12C+12C reactions at 95 MeV are fully detected in charge with the GARFIELD and RCo apparatuses at LNL. A comparison to a dedicated Hauser-Feshbach calculation allows to select events which correspond, to a large extent, to the statistical evaporation of highly excited 24Mg, as well as to extract information on the isotopic distribution of the evaporation residues in coincidence with their complete evaporation chain. Residual deviations from a statistical behaviour are observed in alpha yields and attributed to the persistence of cluster correlations well above the 24Mg threshold for 6 alphas decay.