Compound nuclear lifetimes at high excitation energies via a new statistical fluctuation method

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Abstract A new method to determine compound nuclear lifetimes at high excitation energies is proposed and applied to the system 12 C( 28 Si, α ) 36 Ar at two different bombarding energies, 190 and 277 MeV. The alpha particle spectra show a structure which directly reflects the fluctuating behavior of the first de-excitation step. Coherence widths and thus lifetimes for the nucleus 36 Ar were obtained via a correlation function analysis. The results at low excitation energies are consistent with standard statistical models while the result at high excitation energy is compatible with a theoretically predicted change of the level density parameter.