Probing the structure of exotic nuclei by transfer reactions

Low energy single nucleon transfer reactions are proposed as a tool to investigate the structure of nuclei far off stability. Experimental concepts and conditions are discussed, in particular high resolution γ-ray spectroscopy after single nucleon pickup reactions. Nuclear structure is described by Skyrme Hartree-Fock calculations including pairing. As representative examples, binding energies, radii and wave functions for Mg and Sn isotopes are calculated. In the neutron deficient Mg isotopes a proton skin is found. At the neutron driplines the Mg and Sn isotopes develop extended neutron skins. The nuclear structure results are used in DWBA and EFR-DWBA transfer calculations. Single nucleon transfer reactions of ^32,36Mg and exotic Sn beams on targets ranging from ²H to ²⁴Mg in inverse kinematics are explored. The one-nucleon transfer cross sections decrease strongly for high-Z targets. An impact parameter analysis shows that the transfer process is selective on the tails of the wave functions. The largest cross sections are obtained for ²H and ⁹Be targets at incident energies of E _lab = 2-5 MeV/u. The energy-momentum dependence is closely related to the special properties of wave functions of weakly bound states. Two-neutron (p,t) stripping reactions are studied for a ⁶He projectile. A strong competition of sequential and direct processes is found at low energies. Received: 1 October 1997 / Revised version: 25 November 1997