Electromagnetic dissociation as a tool for nuclear structure and astrophysics

Abstract

Coulomb dissociation is an especially simple and important reaction mechanism. Since the perturbation due to the electric field of the nucleus is exactly known, firm conclusions can be drawn from such measurements. Electromagnetic matrix elements and astrophysical S-factors for radiative capture processes can be extracted from experiments. We describe the basic theory, new results concerning higher order effects in the dissociation of neutron halo nuclei, and briefly review the experimental results obtained up to now. Some new applications of Coulomb dissociation for nuclear astrophysics and nuclear structure physics are discussed.

Determination of the Mg36(n,γ)Mg37 reaction rate from Coulomb dissociation of Shubhchintak1, Chatterjee2, Shyam3 2017Phys. Rev. C

“…[ 13,22,[26][27][28][29]]. Nevertheless, in the context of the reaction studied in this paper, we have checked that the breakup cross sections are indeed dominated by the E1 multipolarity by evaluating the Coulomb dissociation cross sections within the first order Coulomb excitation theory [25].…”

“…A very promising way of studying the photodisintegration process is provided by the virtual photons acting on a fast charged nuclear projectile passing through the Coulomb field of a heavy target nucleus [12][13][14]. The advantage of this Coulomb dissociation (CD) method, in which the valence neutron is removed from a fast projectile in the Coulomb field of heavy target nuclei, is that here measurements can be performed at higher beam energies, which enhances the cross sections considerably.…”

Theoretical descriptions of compound-nuclear reactions: open problems and challenges

“…Approaches such as the Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient (ANC) method [82,65], Coulomb dissociation [7,6], and the Trojan-Horse method [75] have yielded valuable crosssection information for various direct reactions. Here we focus on the Surrogate Nuclear Reactions technique, which employs a transfer or inelastic scattering reaction to determine a compound-nucleus cross section indirectly.…”

Structure and Coulomb dissociation of 23O within the quark–meson coupling model

“…Thus, unlike most of the theoretical models described in a recent review of breakup theories [32], this approach does not require the knowledge of the positions and widths of the continuum states. Hence, it is free from the uncertainties associated with the multipole strength distributions [33] that may exist in some of these theories.…”