Speaker
Prof.
Anthony Cowley
(Stellenbosch University)
Description
The structure of halo nuclei, such as $^{11}$Li is of considerable interest [1]. The two-neutron transfer reaction $^{11}$Li(*p,t*) $^{9}$Li promises to provide valuable information on the halo-neutron correlation of this exotic Borromean nuclear species. Unfortunately a relatively sophisticated theoretical prediction does not reproduce the first experimental cross section angular distribution of this reaction at an incident energy of 3 MeV [2] particularly well. The hope that a more refined calculation would be successful seems to be somewhat elusive, because a fairly sophisticated theoretical attempt fails spectacularly [3] to reproduce the angular distribution for the same reaction at a slightly higher incident energy of 4.4 MeV. On the other hand, as will be shown in this work, a very simplistic simultaneous transfer, zero-range distorted-wave Born Approximation gives an excellent reproduction of the angular-distribution shape. The implications of this surprising result will be discussed.
[1] I. Tanihata, H. Savajols, and R. Kanungo, Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics **68** (2013) 215.
[2] I. Tanihata et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. **100** (2008) 192502.
[3] Ian Thompson, 2011 Theory and Calculation of Two-Nucleon Transfer Reactions Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Report LLNL-PRES-492069 (unpublished).
Primary author
Prof.
Anthony Cowley
(Stellenbosch University)
