Statistical compound processes in light nuclei

This paper discusses two principal questions: How reliably can cross sections for heavy-ion compound-nucleus reactions be predicted. What can be learned from those reactions which proceed via statistical compound processes. The rationale for using a statistical model is examined first. Certain heavy-ion reactions show a selective population of high-spin states in the residual nuclei while others do not; this phenomenon of selectivity and its spectroscopic applications are considered. The importance of the critical angular momentum in the entrance channel and in the compound nucleus is treated. The topics of level densities and isospin are discussed, and further applications are presented. (28 figures, 4 tables) (U.S.)