Excitation functions of the fifteen most strongly populated states ($9<\mathrm{}{E}_x<17\mathrm{}$ MeV) in the reaction ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}({}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C},p){}_{}{}^{23}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Na}$ have been studied using a magnetic spectrograph. A resonance structure was observed for transitions to several final states at $E_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{}}=19.3\mathrm{}$ MeV with ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{}}\cong 500$ keV. Two particle-bound states in ${}_{}{}^{23}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Na}$ at 9.08 and 9.84 MeV are particularly strongly populated in the reaction ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}({}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C},p)$ at the resonant energy. The further study of the structure of these states may provide an important clue to the nature of the observed ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ + ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ resonance.

• Received 17 January 1974

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.32.687