The possible occurrence of highly deformed configurations in the 40Ca
di-nuclear system formed in the 28Si + 12C reaction is investigated
by analyzing the spectra of emitted light charged particles. Both inclusive and
exclusive measurements of the heavy fragments (A ≥ 10) and their
associated light charged particles (protons and α particles) have been
made at the IReS Strasbourg {\sc VIVITRON} Tandem facility at bombarding
energies of Elab(28Si) = 112 MeV and 180 MeV by using the {\sc ICARE}
charged particle multidetector array. The energy spectra, velocity
distributions, and both in-plane and out-of-plane angular correlations of light
charged particles are compared to statistical-model calculations using a
consistent set of parameters with spin-dependent level densities. The analysis
suggests the onset of large nuclear deformation in 40Ca at high spin.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figure