Comment on ``Specific Heat and Shape Transitions in Light sd Nuclei''

Abstract

This comment re-examines the origin of structure seen in the computed specific heat of finite nuclei. In a recent paper, Civitarese and Schvellinger suggest that such structure is due to model-space truncation in the calculations. We reaffirm our conclusion that the structure is caused by a collective-to-non-collective phase transformation at low temperatures, signaled by a change in the nuclear level density below 10 MeV excitation energy.