Doorway states as a principal decay pathway in 12C(12C,gamma) radiative capture

The heavy-ion radiative capture reaction, 12C(12C,γ), has been investigated at beam energies around 16 MeV. Two different experiments were performed. Capture cross sections were obtained by measuring fused 24Mg residues and were found to significantly exceed values reported earlier. Subsequently, the decay pathways associated with radiative capture were delineated using the Gammasphere array. A substantial fraction of the decay was found to proceed through a few high-lying doorway states near 10 MeV in excitation.