Strong resonances at high excitation energy in 17O+alpha resonance scattering

TL;DR

This study used the TTIK method to identify strong resonances in high-energy 17O+alpha scattering, revealing previously unexamined alpha-cluster states in 21Ne at excitation energies of 8-16 MeV.

Contribution

First observation of strong resonances at high excitation energies in 17O+alpha scattering, expanding understanding of alpha-cluster states in 21Ne.

Findings

Detected strong peaks indicating alpha-cluster states in 21Ne

Identified excitation energies between 8-16 MeV

Estimated resonance contributions through additional tests

Abstract

The Thick Target Inverse Kinematic (TTIK) approach was used to measure excitation functions for the elastic 17O ({\alpha}, {\alpha}) scattering at the initial 17O beam energy of 54.4 MeV. We observed strong peaks corresponding to highly excited {\alpha}-cluster states in the 21Ne excitation energy region of 8-16 MeV, which have never been investigated before. Additional tests were done at a 17O beam energy of 56.4 MeV to estimate a possible contribution of resonance inelastic scattering.