Evidence of non-statistical structures in the elastic and inelastic scattering of58Ni+58Ni and58Ni+62Ni and intermediate dinuclear states

Excitation functions and angular distributions of58Ni+58Ni and58Ni+62Ni scattering at energies just above the Coulomb barrier have been measured aroundθcm=90° in energy stepsΔEcm=0.25 MeV fromEcm ⋍ 110 MeV toEcm ⋍ 120 MeV for58Ni+58Ni and fromEcm ⋍ 110 MeV toEcm ⋍ 118 MeV for58Ni+62Ni. Evidence for structure of non-statistical character has been found in the angle-summed excitation functions; this evidence is corroborated by the analysis of the angular distributions. This is the first time that non-statistical structure in elastic and inelastic scattering is reported with high confidence level for this mass and excitation energy ranges. Attempts are presented to understand the nature of this structure, including the presence of intermediate dinuclear states and virtual states in a potential well