On the meaning of the nuclear reaction durations,measured by means of the blocking effect

The expressions for the duration of the nuclear reaction and the compound-nucleus lifetime at a range of strongly over- lapping resonances are generalized. It is shown how the interpretation of the measurements by means of the shadow (blocking) effect is changed when the non-exponential compound-nucleus decay is taken into account. A new method is proposed for obtaining information on the resonance density and width from the measured compound-nucleus lifetimes with the utilization of the optical-statistical analysis.