On the High Excitation 7$\alpha$ De-exciting States in $^{28}$Si$^*$

Abstract

A direct comparison and analysis of published spectra for the 7$\alpha$ disassembly of $^{28}$Si projectiles excited in collisions with $^{12}$C at 35 MeV/u reveals significant agreement in the derived excitation energies of high excitation energy resonances observed in two different experiments, in contrast to some earlier conclusions reported in the literature. Many of the observed resonances have excitation energies consistent with those arrived at in recent theoretical investigations explicitly predicting the excitation energies and spins of toroidal nuclei. An AI-assisted application of well-established statistical filtering techniques reveals identical structures in all spectra investigated. Some additional peaks are observed. The possibility that they correspond to other favored geometries is discussed.