Abstract. We assess the sensitivity of the intermediate energy, direct two-nucleon knockout reaction mechanism to details of the correlated motions of the two removed nucleons -as might be revealed by measurements of partial cross sections to different final states of the mass A−2 reaction residues. Comparisons of new reaction calculations with recent data for exotic nuclei in the sd-shell suggest that this sensitivity is significant and that the coherence of the twonucleon configurations to the reaction allows small wave function components to be probed. The relative yields for the different J π transitions are well described by the USD shell model calculations, however the measured cross sections require an overall suppression of the shell model two-nucleon spectroscopic strengths.
IntroductionOne-nucleon knockout reactions from intermediate-energy (projectile fragmentation) beams are an increasingly important tool for mapping the single-particle structures of nuclei with exotic neutron-and proton-number combinations. The single-nucleon removal cross sections are large (several tens of mb) and both the efficiency and selectivity of the associated reaction measurements are high. This allows an examination of orbitals of both the weakly-bound (excess) and strongly-bound (deficient) nucleon species at their respective (and very displaced) Fermi surfaces [1,2]. Exclusive (with respect to the knockout residue final states) single-nucleon knockout reaction analyses on light nuclear targets (usually 9 Be and 12 C), with energies from 40 MeV -1 GeV/nucleon, are now able to assess structure model predictions of level orderings and shell-gaps and of details of level occupations and spectroscopic strengths in some of the most rare, unstable species. Examples are discussed in [1,3,4] and in references therein.In contrast, two-nucleon removal reactions -and what they can teach us -are less well understood. The intrinsic two-nucleon removal cross sections are now smaller (of order 1 mb) and their theoretical interpretation is also more complicated. Different [j 1 ⊗ j 2 ] configurations of the two-nucleons now contribute coherently to the cross section [5] resulting in a less transparent connection between data and the underlying structures. An added complication is that the reactions will, in general, proceed by both (i) a sudden two-nucleon knockout component with direct population of the mass A−2 residue, and (ii) indirect, two-step mechanisms -involving one-nucleon knockout to excited, intermediate fragments of mass A−1, followed by nucleon