Excitation and neutron decay of xenon by forward-angle scattering of 250A MeV 17O ions

A technique to study giant resonances by forward-angle scattering of heavy ions in the energy range 100-470A MeV, using one quadrant of the CELSIUS storage ring as a magnetic spectrometer, is presented. The reaction natXe(17O,17O'n) has been studied at E(17O)=250A MeV. A structure in the excitation energy spectrum, compatible with the isovector dipole resonance and the isoscalar quadrupole resonance, was observed, together with a possible candidate for the isovector quadrupole resonance. In addition to neutrons from statistical decay, a large number of non-statistical neutrons in the range En=5-30 MeV was observed, with a forward-peaked angular distribution. (orig.)