High-lying excitations in nuclei

The characteristics of highly excited states in medium-heavy nuclei are illustrated using the single and two particle strength functions deduced from the analysis of neutron pick-up reactions to deep-hole states. The experimental neutron-hole strengths are compared to the theoretical predictions of the quasi particle-phonon and to the single-particle vibration nuclear models. Recent measurements of J for inner-hole states in 89Zr and sup(115,119)Sn using the analyzing power of the (p,d) and (d,t) are reported. The higher isospin components of single particle strength distributions are investigated via transfer reactions to unbound isobaric analog states. The proton decay of isobaric analog states is observed in the study of the (3He,αp-tilde) and (3He,dp-tilde) sequential processes. The selectivity of this decay channel is used to populate particle-hole or hole-hole multiplets in the residual nuclei. (author)