Statistical and nonstatistical neutron decay of the giant electric dipole resonance of 208Pb.

The neutron decay of the giant electric dipole resonance of {sup 208}Pb has been determined by a measurement of the differential cross section, {ital d}{sigma}({ital E}{sub {gamma}},{ital E}{sub {ital n}})/{ital dE}{sub {ital n}} of the {sup 208}Pb({gamma},{ital n}) reaction for 20 contiguous photon energy bands between 11.2 and 15.7 MeV. The statistical component of the decay was calculated in the Hauser-Feshbach formalism. A nonstatistical component of the decay to low-lying hole states is unambiguously identified. The magnitude of this component is strongly energy dependent.