Giant resonance spectroscopy of 40Ca with the (e,e′x) reaction (I):: Experiments and overview of results

The Ca-40(e,e'x; x = p,alpha) reaction has been measured in the giant resonance excitation region for E-x similar or equal to 8-26 MeV. The present article is the first cut of three describing the experiments and giving an overview of the results, Data were taken at four momentum transfers in the range q = 0.26-0.66 fm(-1). Angular correlations for decay to the ground state and low-lying states of K-39 and Ar-36 could be extracted as a function of excitation energy in Ca-40. Excitation energy spectra integrated over the particle emission angle were generated for the various resolved decay channels. Comparisons of the giant resonance cross-section distributions with results using other electromagnetic or hadronic probes have been made and good agreement is found in most cases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.