First observation of alpha-cluster states in the (14)O+(4)He interaction
Abstract
We measured (14)O+(4)He excitation functions for elastic scattering which demonstrate, for the first time, a well developed alpha-cluster structure in the proton rich nucleus, (18)Ne. We present the excitation energies and estimates of the spins for the dominant resonances using an R-matrix approach. A resonance at 9.2 MeV excitation energy in (18)Ne is particularly interesting. The spin-parity of the state is found to be 3(-) and the alpha particle reduced width for the state appears to be comparable to the single particle limit. We have found indications for unusually large size of the observed alpha-cluster configuration.