A molecular orbital theory for the 3α transfer process has been formulated and applied to the ${}_{}{}^{16}{}_{}{}^{}$O${+\mathrm{}}^{28}$Si scattering case. The α transfer mechanism has already been applied successfully in the interpretation of the anomalous large angle scattering between 4N nuclei. It would be worthwhile to test whether the alpha transfer mechanism can also explain the nonstatistical intermediate structure of the excitation function often found in 4N nuclei scattering. The excitation function at 180° is known to be much more sensitive to the details of the optical potential than are the fits to the angular distribution. Both the experimental data of the excitation function at 180° in the energy region from 14 to 52 MeV and all thirteen differential cross sections in the energy region 18.67–34.80 MeV can be fitted well simultaneously with a common set of parameters.

• Received 20 October 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.35.1789