High-spin molecular resonances in 12C + 12C

Abstract

Resonances observed in the 12C + 12C collisions are studied with a molecular model. At high spins J = 10–18, a stable dinuclear configuration is found to be an equator-equator touching one. Firstly, normal modes have been solved around the equilibrium, with spin J and K-quantum number being specified for rotation of the whole system. Secondly, with respect to large centrifugal energy, Coriolis coupling has been diagonalized among low-lying 11 states of normal-mode excitations, which brings K-mixing. The analyses of decay widths and excitation functions have been done. The molecular ground state exhibits alignments of the orbital angular momentum and the 12C spins, while some of the molecular excited states exhibit disalignments with small widths. Those results are surprisingly in good agreement with the experiments, which will light up a new physical picture of the highspin 12C + 12C resonances.