Transfer reactions and sub-barrier fusion in 40Ca + 90, 96Zr

The two systems ⁴⁰Ca + ^90,96Zr have been studied by measuring nucleon transfer reactions at two energies near the Coulomb barrier, thus complementing the available sub-barrier fusion cross-sections. Angular distributions for various transfer channels have been determined. Significantly larger neutron transfer cross-sections are found for the target ⁹⁶Zr that exhibits the larger enhancement in the sub-barrier fusion cross-sections. All data have been analyzed with a new model for heavy-ion collisions that calculates simultaneously transfer cross-sections, fusion excitation functions and barrier distributions. The model gives a good account of both transfer and fusion data. Received: 2 May 2002 / Accepted: 4 June 2002 / Published online: 26 November 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: montagnoli@pd.infn.it, Fax +39049 8277102, Tel. +39049 8277117. RID="b" ID="b"On leave from the China Institute for Atomic Energy, 102413 Beijing, China. Communicated by C. Signorini     

Evidence for a proton halo in 27P through measurements of reaction cross-sections at intermediate energies

Measurements of reaction cross-sections ( σ_R's) for some proton-rich nuclei ( N = 11–15 isotones) on carbon target at intermediate energies have been performed on RIBLL of HIRFL. A larger enhancement of the σ_R for ²⁷P has been observed than for its neighboring nuclei. A large difference between the proton and neutron density distributions (proton halo) is necessary to explain the enhanced cross-section for ²⁷P within the framework of the Glauber model. Density distributions with HO-type core plus Yukawa-square tail and rms radii for ²⁷P have been deduced from the measured σ_R data for the first time, which conform the long tail in its densities as predicted by RMF calculations. Received: 23 May 2001 / Accepted: 7 November 2001     

Thick skin in neutron/proton-rich sodium isotopes

Nucleon (both neutron and proton) density distributions of the chain of sodium isotopes are calculated using a semi-phenomenological model of nuclear density which incorporates correctly the asymptotic behaviour and the behaviour near the centre. The experimental charge root-mean-square radii and the single neutron and proton separation energies, required as input, are used. The calculated interaction cross-sections using these densities in the Glauber model agree well with the experiment. The calculated neutron rms radii r _n and the nuclear skin thickness ( r _n - r _p) closely agree with the corresponding experimental values and also are consistent with the Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) calculations. Received: 24 April 2001 / Accepted: 28 June 2001     

Isospin dependence of the isotopic distributions from 36Ar and 40Ar fragmentation at about 60 MeV/nucleon

Fragments produced in the reactions of 69 MeV/nucleon ³⁶Ar and 55 MeV/nucleon ⁴⁰Ar on a Be target have been measured experimentally. The isotopic distributions from fragmentation reaction for both projectiles are compared with modified statistical abrasion-ablation model calculations. A strong isospin effect exhibits in the fragment distributions produced in ³⁶Ar and ⁴⁰Ar fragmentation. Experimental evidence for the disappearance of the isospin effect in the isotopic distributions produced by projectile fragmentation is observed with the increase of the violence of nuclear reaction. Received: 15 November 2000 / Accepted: 11 April 2001     

Strong reaction channels at barrier energies in the system 6Li + 208Pb

Large cross-section reaction channels were measured in the systems ⁶Li( ⁷Li) + ²⁰⁸Pb with high statistical accuracy at 5(3) energies around the Coulomb barrier from 29 to 39 MeV. These channels were assigned (mainly) to the breakup of ⁶Li, very loosely bound, into α + d and to the breakup of ⁵Li, produced by n-transfer to the target, into α + p and to similar processes with ⁷Li beam. The cross-sections with ⁶Li, S _α = 1.475 MeV, are systematically larger than the ⁷Li ones. This reflects, most likely, the higher binding energy of ⁷Li, S _α = 2.468 MeV. Theoretical predictions for the ⁶Li + ²⁰⁸Pb system which include for ⁶Li breakup to continuum states within a continuum discretized coupled-channels approach (CDCC) and resonant breakup plus n-transfer with DWBA reproduce the angular distribution shapes but still underestimate the cross-sections by a factor ∼ 3. Received: 15 January 2001 / Accepted: 3 March 2001     

Implication of proton-nucleus scattering for density distributions of unstable nuclei

The use of elastic proton scattering at intermediate and high energies to obtain information about the density distributions of unstable nuclei is investigated. A comparison between the relativistic impulse approximation (RIA) and Glauber model for proton scattering from ¹⁶O, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁴⁴Ca and ⁴⁸Ca at medium energies is performed. We used density distributions derived from the relativistic mean-field theory, employing the recent relativistic force NL-RA1, as well as experimental and phenomenological densities. It is found that the eikonal approximation can describe the cross-section only at small scattering angles and is weakly sensitive to the density distributions, while the RIA nicely produced the experimental cross-sections, even at medium and larger angles, and was very sensitive to the nuclear densities. Furthermore, the RIA better describes the isospin dependence of the cross-section. We used the RIA to investigate the density distribution of ⁵⁸Ca for proton scattering at different energies. It is found that the cross-section strongly depends on the parameters of the density distribution even at a small scattering angle. These results are important in extracting information about the structure of unstable nuclei. We also investigated the RIA and its sensitivity in describing halo nuclei such as ⁶He. We used for ⁶He a no-halo Gaussian density and a realistic-halo density that derived in the cluster orbital shell model approximation and contains the extended distribution of the valence nucleons. Comparison with the recent experimental data at GSI at 717 MeV/nucleon shows that the RIA successfully described the data at all considered range of the momentum transfer and on the other hand favor the halo structure of ⁶He. Received: 1 December 2001 / Accepted: 31 July 2002 / Published online: 11 February 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: mrashdan@hotmail.com Communicated by P. Schuck     

Fusion-fission reactions induced by 6He-ions

The experimentally measured excitation functions for the fission and 4n evaporation channels are presented for the ⁶He + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction. The secondary ⁶He beam was produced using the special beam line (Q4DQ-spectrometer) of the U400M accelerator at FLNR, JINR. The comparison of the obtained experimental data with similar results for the ⁴He + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction shows that in the case of the ⁶He + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction a significant enhancement of the cross-section is observed for energies above the barrier. In order to get an agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical calculations it is necessary to reduce the Coulomb barrier by 15-20% , which corresponds to an increase of the parameter r₀ of the nuclear potential up to 1.5-1.6 fm. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001     

Threshold enhancement in η photoproduction from 2H and 4He

The photoproduction of η-mesons from ²H and ⁴He has been studied for energies close to the production thresholds. The experiments were carried out with the tagged photon beam of the Mainz MAMI accelerator. The η-mesons were detected via their two photon decays with the electromagnetic calorimeter TAPS. Total cross-sections, angular and momentum distributions of the η-mesons have been determined for both reactions. The total cross-sections in the threshold region show a large enhancement over the predictions of a participant-spectator model, indicating significant final-state interaction effects. The results are compared to recent model calculations taking into account nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-η final-state interaction effects on different levels of sophistication. Received: 23 November 2001 / Accepted: 11 February 2002     

Enhanced neutron pair transfer and collective excitations in the system 206Pb + 118Sn at barrier energies

At energies below the Coulomb barrier, neutron transfer and Coulomb excitation have been measured in a very heavy asymmetric nuclear system, in ²⁰⁶Pb + ¹¹⁸Sn. These are semi-magic nuclei showing super-fluid properties. Particle-γ coincidence techniques using 5 Euroball Cluster detectors (EB), combined in a set-up with the Heidelberg-Darmstadt NaI Crystal Ball (CB), have been used. Position-sensitive detectors allowed the observation of scattering processes covering angles from 110 up to 150 degrees. The fragments are identified via the known γ-decays of the lowest excited states using the high resolution of EB. Using the unique feature of the set-up with the CB, transfer to well-defined final channels with known quantum numbers is selected using the high-efficiency multiplicity filter of the CB with no second γ-ray, i.e. without feeding. The data are analysed using the semi-classical approach and transfer probabilities are obtained. Coulomb excitation has been analysed using known transition probabilities. The enhancement is deduced for the two-neutron transfer populating the low-lying super-fluid 2⁺ states in ¹²⁰Sn and ¹¹⁶Sn, while the 2n transition remains in the ground state for the ^20NPb nuclei. Large enhancements up to EF ≃ 10³ are observed. This is the first observation of neutron pair transfer enhancement for a heavy nuclear binary system with super-fluid properties with experimentally separated levels. The calculations with microscopic 2-neutron wave functions, with configuration mixing over six shell model configurations and using the coupled reaction channels approach, reproduce well the observed probabilities and the enhancement. Received: 27 August 2002 / Accepted: 9 December 2002 / Published online: 25 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: oertzen@hmi.de Communicated by D. Schwalm     

Role of multi-step processes in 16O(11B,12C)15N at 41.25 MeV

The ¹⁶O(¹¹B,¹²C)¹⁵N reaction at 41.25 MeV has been investigated using the kinematical coincidence method. Polarization tensors t₂₀ and t₄₀ of ¹²C[2⁺ ₁] for the quantization axis taken along the direction of propagation have been measured at center-of-mass angles (Θ_c.m.) between 48^° and 62^° by analyzing the energy spectrum of ¹²C[2⁺ ₁] modulated by the effect of γ-ray emission. The cross-sections of the transfer reactions leading to the ¹²C[g.s.]+¹⁵N[g.s.], ¹²C[2⁺ ₁]+¹⁵N[g.s.] and ¹²C[g.s.]+¹⁵N[3/2^- ₁] final states have also been measured in the range 48^°≤Θ_c.m.≤ 120^°. The polarization tensor terms of ¹²C[2⁺ ₁] largely deviating from zero have been observed, contrary to the prediction by the distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA). The one-step DWBA calculation also fails in describing the transfer reaction cross-sections. It is shown that the coupled channel model calculation including excitations and reorientations in ¹¹B and ¹²C satisfactorily reproduces both the tensor terms and the cross-sections of the transfer reactions. The multi-step processes passing through the excited states of ¹¹B are found to significantly contribute to the reaction. Received: 3 July 2000 / Accepted: 15 September 2000     

Transfer, breakup, and fusion reactions of 6He with 209Bi near the Coulomb barrier

The fusion of ⁶He with a ²⁰⁹Bi target displays a large enhancement at energies near to and below the Coulomb barrier. Recently, a ⁴He group of remarkable intensity, which dominates the total reaction cross-section, has also been observed in the near-barrier interaction of the same system. It is argued that this transfer/breakup channel acts as a doorway state to fusion. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001     

Dynamic polarization potential of 12C+12C system at molecular-resonance energies

The nuclear reaction dynamics leading to the formation of recently discovered resonance in the mutual-0₂ ⁺ channel of the ¹²C+¹²C inelastic scattering around E _c.m.≃ 32 MeV is studied in terms of the dynamic polarization potential (DPP) induced by the channel coupling among various excited states in ¹²C. The microscopic 3α cluster-model wave functions are used to generate the ¹²C−¹²C diagonal and coupling potentials in the double-folding model. It is found that DPP for the 0₂ ⁺+ 0₂ ⁺ channel is an unusually strong attractive potential which even exceeds the zeroth-order folding-model potential of this channel around the nuclear surface region and that the strong coupling between the 0₂ ⁺ and 2₂ ⁺ states is predominantly responsible for the unusual DPP in this channel. The effective potential, the sum of the original folding-model potential and the attractive DPP, is found to generates resonance states in the same energy region as that of the resonance states generated by the original folding-model potential but the former states are found to be higher-nodal states having four additional radial nodes. Similar but more moderate property of DPP is also found in the entrance (elastic) channel. These results suggest that the reaction dynamics of generating the resonance in the ¹²C(0₂ ⁺) +¹²C(0₂ ⁺) channel may rather differ from that of the simple crossing of the zeroth-order molecular band generated by the potentials in the entrance and exit channels suggested by the standard band-crossing model. Received: 17 December 1998 / Revised version: 1 March 1999     

Pionisation, relativistic lead-lead collisions, and the nature of average phase space density

The average phase space density (APSD) of the particles produced in high energy nuclear collisions at ultrarelativistic energies has here been theoretically estimated on the basis of some particular models for particle production spectra. The model-based values so obtained have been compared with the very recent experimental results in the field on the relevant observable and also with the calculated results obtained by some other models. Based on such comparisons, the present work indicates very strongly that Hagedorn's model has a sound potentiality to achieve a competitive status in its capability to deal with the data on the APSD factor in heavy-ion collisions. The impact and implications of all this have also been emphasised here in the end. Received: 14 November 2000 / Accepted: 19 April 2001     

The transparency of nuclei to nucleons and pions in a relativistic Glauber approximation

We present a selection of results obtained within the context of a relativistic eikonal model. First, results of relativistic Glauber calculations for the nuclear transparency extracted from photon-induced pion production are presented. Second, computed differential cross-sections for the ¹² C(p, 2p) are compared to data.     

Interaction at the barrier in the systems 9, 10, 11Be + 209Bi: Well-established facts and open questions

The experimental data relative to the interaction for the systems ^{9, 10, 11}Be + ²⁰⁹Bi at the Coulomb barrier are critically discussed and compared also with present theories. The break-up (BU) of the two loosely bound projectiles, ^{9, 11}Be, seems to influence the fusion process by “hindering” the fusion cross-sections; but, contrary to expectations, the ¹¹Be halo structure has no influence, since no “enhancement” is evident from the existing data. Attempt to describe simultaneously all the ⁹Be + ²⁰⁹Bi system data: fusion, elastic scattering and BU, within a coupled-channel (CC) approach is only partly successful. It is important, from a theoretical viewpoint, to include in the CC formalism as well as possible the BU process both to continuum states as well as to unbound resonances. More accurate and well-focused experiments are also necessary to pin down this problem. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001     

Optical potential analysis of proton elastic scattering from <Superscript>12</Superscript>C based on the <Emphasis Type="Italic">α</Emphasis>-particle model

Based on an α-particle model of ¹²C, an optical potential for intermediate-energy proton- ¹²C scattering is presented in the framework of the KMT theory. The parameterized proton- ⁴He amplitude, the required basic input for constructing the optical potential, is obtained by fitting the proton- ⁴He scattering data. The differential cross-sections and analyzing powers of the proton- ¹²C elastic scattering at incident energies ranging from 0.2 to 1.0GeV have been calculated by using the obtained optical potential. The main features of the measured angular distributions of the cross-section and the analyzing power can be satisfactorily described. The proton- ¹²C total cross-sections have also been calculated, and the results are in good agreement with the experimental data at energies below 0.6GeV but underestimate the data about 6% at higher energies.     

Electromagnetic response and breakup of light weakly bound nuclei in a dicluster model

The light weakly bound nucleus ⁷Li is studied within a dicluster α + t picture. Different observables obtained within our simple model are compared with previous calculations and experiments showing good agreement. In particular, we calculate dipole and quadrupole electromagnetic response to the continuum. The energy distribution of B(Eλ) values are consistent with the energy-weighted molecular sum rule and display a sizable contribution of non-resonant character arising from the weak binding property. The corresponding form factors for excitations to the continuum are used in a semiclassical coupled-channel scheme to get estimates for the breakup cross-section in a heavy-ion reaction. The nuclear contribution is found to play an important role in the process for bombarding energies around the Coulomb barrier. The masses and charges ratios of the two clusters are shown to lead to features of the cluster halo that may significantly differ from the one usually associated with one-nucleon haloes.     

Tensor polarization of 12C[2+ 1] in the 16O(13C,12C)17O reaction at 50 MeV

The ¹⁶O(¹³C,¹²C)¹⁷O reaction at 50 MeV has been investigated using the kinematical coincidence method. Polarization tensors t ₂₀ and t ₄₀ of ¹²C[2⁺ ₁] for the quantization axis taken along the direction of propagation have been measured by analyzing the energy spectrum of ¹²C[2⁺ ₁], modulated by the effect of γ ray emission. The deduced t ₄₀ values significantly deviate from zero, contrary to the prediction of the distorted-wave Born approximation theory based on one-step p shell neutron stripping without spin-dependent interactions. The phenomenological spin–orbit interaction necessary to reproduce the magnitude of measured t ₄₀ is found to be much larger than the folding model prediction. It is shown that the experimental polarization tensors as well as the cross sections can be reproduced by introducing multi-step processes involving excitations in ¹²C and ¹³C without introducing spin-dependent interactions. Received: 2 August 1999 / Revised version: 3 February 2000