Contribution of decay products of transfer reactions to heavy-ion inelastic and transfer spectra

A study of decay product contributions to inclusive ejectile kinetic energy spectra is presented. Analytical formulae for the positions and widths of these contributions are derived from kinematical considerations. A formal integral expression for the double-differential cross section $\text{d}{}^2\text{σ/}\text{d}\text{Ω}\text{d}\text{E}$ is given in the case of one-particle emission from an excited state of the ejectile. The effects of anisotropic angular distributions are studied. The differential cross sections are then computed by a Monte Carlo method and compared to experimental spectra over a large range of measured systems. The transfer-evaporation mechanism is shown to contribute strongly to the background of the spectra but not to be responsible for the narrow structure observed in some reactions.