Deexcitation of compound nuclei with high angular momenta

Effective excitation energies used to obtain level densities in statistical model deexcitation calculations of nuclei with high angular momenta have been evaluated specifically for neutron, proton, deuteron, and $\alpha$ emission. When particle emission is assumed to change the initial angular momentum distribution, the effect of these excitation energies is to strongly enhance $\alpha$ emission relative to other modes of deexcitation. Calculations are illustrated with reference to the deexcitation of the ${}_{}{}^{149}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Tb}$ compound nucleus.