The sub-Coulomb 12C + 12C resonances in a microscopic 12C+12C,α+20Ne, 8Be+16O cluster basis

The low-J resonances in the Coulomb barrier region of the ¹² C+¹²C system are investigated in the framework of a microscopic cluster model basis including ¹²C+¹²C, α+ ²⁰Ne, and su8 Be+ ¹⁶O fragment decompositions. Calculations are carried out in an orthogonality condition model approximation in which Pauli-forbidden components are properly excluded from the basis but in which the interaction among cluster fragments is approximated by a local potential, obtained from a gaussian NN interaction by a folding procedure leading to both spherical and Q · Q terms. Only minor adjustments of overall strength and fall-off parameters are introduced to gain a consistent picture of the low-energy spectrum in the separate rearrangement channels. The basis includes cluster relative motion excitations with oscillator quanta from 12 to 20 and is not quite rich enough to give a detailed quantitative comparison between theory and experiment. Predicted excitation energies are too high by ~ 3 MeV and predicted ¹²C partial widths are too small to indicate a well-developed surface-peaked molecular character; but it does appear possible to identify a 5 MeV region as the potential seat of the 0⁺, 2⁺, 4⁺ resonances. The number and approximate spacing of the resonance fine structure components are in agreement with experiment.