Pre-equilibrium emission and its possible relation to α-clustering in nuclei

The study of nuclear states built on clusters bound by valence neutrons in their molecular configurations is a field of large interest. Clustering becomes particularly important at the dripline, where weakly bound systems prevail. For light nuclei, at an excitation energy close to the particle separation value, there are experimental evidences of such structure effects, but this is still not the case for heavier nuclear systems. Several theoretical efforts have been done in the development of pre-formation alpha-clustering models, but there is still a lack of experimental data capable to give a direct feedback. The search of alpha-cluster evidences in medium-mass systems is therefore a new challenge which can give new hints in this field of research.