Coulomb breakup of light nuclei in the field of a heavy ion at relativistic collision energies

A simple method for calculating the amplitude and the cross section for the Coulomb breakup of a light nucleus into two fragments in the field of a heavy ion at relativistic collision energies is proposed on the basis of time-dependent perturbation theory. It is shown that the resulting amplitude for the process in question has a correct nonrelativistic limit. The contribution of the longitudinal component of the Coulomb field of a heavy ion tends to zero in the ultrarelativistic limit. A specific implementation of the method is demonstrated by taking the example of the Coulomb breakup reaction ²⁰⁸Pb(⁸B, ⁷Bep)²⁰⁸Pb at various collision energies. The results are found to be in agreement with experimental data.