Abstract
The thermal response of states of approximate angular momentum in Mg24 with Jπ =8+ has been calculated in the finite temperature restricted Hartree-Fock approximation. Full angular momentum projection has been circumvented by the use of constraints on the total angular momentum J^2 and the z component J^z. States with an abnormal occupation of the single particle orbitals at T=0 exhibit a discontinuity in the thermal response of their variational energy.