What can we learn from giant resonances in light nuclei?

Extensive experimental investigations into understanding the fine structure of giant resonances in nuclei across the periodic table have been carried out in recent years using the state-of-the-art K600 magnetic spectrometer of iThemba LABS, Cape Town, South Africa. Based on the established results in comparison to various theoretical calculations, it has been found that the fine structure observed in different giant resonances, namely Isoscalar Giant Quadrupole Resonance (ISGQR), Isovector Giant Dipole Resonance (IVGDR) and Isoscalar Giant Monopole Resonance (ISGMR), in light nuclei such as Ca-40, Si-28 and Al-27 is dominated by Landau damping although signatures for the role of the spreading width are also found. In this report, characteristic energy scales extracted in light nuclei are compared with the state-of-the-art theoretical calculations, while the fine structures results obtained are compared using semblance analysis to search for possible signatures of common fragmentation patterns induced by Landau damping and coupling to 2p-2h states obtained from different giant resonances.