The decay of hot nuclei

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Abstract
The authors review the decay modes of nuclear compound states formed after heavy-ion fusion reactions. Temperature-dependent mean-field theory is used as a basis for a statistical description of the hot nuclear system. After a short resume of traditional cascade calculations for the emission of light particles, statistical gamma -rays and the fission process, much emphasis is put on the discussion of recent work on the giant resonance decay. It allows a detailed investigation of these collective excitations and their damping mechanisms both as a function of temperature and angular momentum. Temperature-dependent linear response theory in connection with a classical treatment of thermal fluctuations provide a relatively simple framework for a microscopic description not only of these collective transitions but also for the first microscopic calculations of the statistical gamma -decay properties.