Continuum level density in the microscopic cluster model

Positions and widths of nuclear resonance states of the nucleus 8Be have been calculated in the microscopic cluster model using real square integrable basis. The imposition of Gamow or scattering asymptotic boundary condition onto the wave function is avoided. The continuum level density smoothed by the Strutinsky averaging procedure is calculated by making use of the eigenvalues of the full and the free Hamiltonian matrices. The continuum level density is connected to the S-matrix and has a Breit-Wigner peak around the resonance energy. This approach is compared with the complex scaling method and with the scattering phase shift calculation. (author)