Open issues in extracting nuclear structure information from the breakup of exotic nuclei

The open issues in the development of models for the breakup of exotic nuclei and the link with the extraction of structure information from experimental data are reviewed. The question of the improvement of the description of exotic nuclei within reaction models is approached in the perspective of previous analyses of the sensitivity of these models to that description. Future developments of reaction models are suggested, such as the inclusion of various channels within one model. The search for new reaction observables that can emphasise more details of exotic nuclear structure is also proposed.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, submitted as a contribution to the Secial Issue on "Nuclear reaction theory" of the Journal of Physics G, guest edited by R.C. Johnson and F.M. Nune

Reconciling Coulomb breakup and neutron radiative capture

The Coulomb-breakup method to extract the cross section for neutron radiative capture at astrophysical energies is analyzed in detail. In particular, its sensitivity to the description of the neutron-core continuum is ascertained. We consider the case of 14C(n, $\gamma$)15C for which both the radiative capture at low energy and the Coulomb breakup of 15C into 14C+n on Pb at 68 MeV/nucleon have been measured with accuracy. We confirm the direct proportionality of the cross section for both reactions to the square of the asymptotic normalization constant of 15C observed by Summers and Nunes [Phys. Rev. C 78, 011601 (2008)], but we also show that the 14C-n continuum plays a significant role in the calculations. Fortunately, the method proposed by Summers and Nunes can be improved to absorb that continuum dependence. We show that a more precise radiative-capture cross section can be extracted selecting the breakup data at forward angles and low 14C-n relative energies.Comment: Erratum added in the Appendix

From the Coulomb breakup of halo nuclei to neutron radiative capture

Coulomb breakup is used to infer radiative-capture cross sections at astrophysical energies. We test theoretically the accuracy of this indirect technique in the particular case of 15C, for which both the Coulomb breakup to ^{14}C+n and the radiative capture 14C(n,{\gamma})15C have been measured. We analyse the dependance of Coulomb-breakup calculations on the projectile description in both its initial bound state and its continuum. Our calculations depend not only on the Asymptotic Normalisation Coefficient (ANC) of the 15C ground state, but also on the 14C-n continuum. This questions the method proposed by Summers and Nunes [Phys. Rev. C 78, 011601 (2008), ibid. 78, 069908 (2008)], which assumes that an ANC can be directly extracted from the comparison of calculations to breakup data. Fortunately, the sensitivity to the continuum description can be absorbed in a normalisation constant obtained by a simple {\chi}2 fit of our calculations to the measurements. By restricting this fit to low 14C-n energy in the continuum, we can achieve a better agreement between the radiative-capture cross sections inferred from the Coulomb-breakup method and the exact ones. This result revives the Coulomb-breakup technique to infer neutron radiative-capture capture to loosely-bound states, which would be very useful for r- and s-process modelling in explosive stellar environments.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the 54th International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics (25-29 January 2016, Bormio, Italy

Analysis of a low-energy correction to the eikonal approximation

Extensions of the eikonal approximation to low energy (20MeV/nucleon typically) are studied. The relation between the dynamical eikonal approximation (DEA) and the continuum-discretized coupled-channels method with the eikonal approximation (E-CDCC) is discussed. When Coulomb interaction is artificially turned off, DEA and E-CDCC are shown to give the same breakup cross section, within 3% error, of $^{15}$C on $^{208}$Pb at 20MeV/nucleon. When the Coulomb interaction is included, the difference is appreciable and none of these models agrees with full CDCC calculations. An empirical correction significantly reduces this difference. In addition, E-CDCC has a convergence problem. By including a quantum-mechanical correction to E-CDCC for lower partial waves between $^{15}$C and $^{208}$Pb, this problem is resolved and the result perfectly reproduces full CDCC calculations at a lower computational cost.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Extending the Eikonal Approximation to Low Energy

E-CDCC and DEA, two eikonal-based reaction models are compared to CDCC at low energy (e.g. 20AMeV) to study their behaviour in the regime at which the eikonal approximation is supposed to fail. We confirm that these models lack the Coulomb deflection of the projectile by the target. We show that a hybrid model, built on the CDCC framework at low angular momenta and the eikonal approximation at larger angular momenta gives a perfect agreement with CDCC. An empirical shift in impact parameter can also be used reliably to simulate this missing Coulomb deflection.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the Conference on "Advances in Radioactive Isotope Science" (ARIS2014). 6 pages, 4 figure

Study of clustering structures through breakup reactions

Models for the description of breakup reactions used to study the structure of exotic cluster structures like halos are reviewed. The sensitivity of these models to the projectile description is presented. Calculations are sensitive to the projectile ground state mostly through its asymptotic normalisation coefficient (ANC). They also probe the continuum of the projectile. This enables studying not only the bound states of the projectile but also its continuum, both resonant and non-resonant. This opens the possibility to study correlations between both halo neutrons in two-neutron halo nuclei.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the 3rd international Workshop on "State of the Art in Nuclear Cluster Physics" (SotANCP, 26-30 May 2014, Yolohama, Japan). 7 pages, 6 figure

Recent advances in the description of reactions involving exotic nuclei

In this contribution to the proceedings of the International Nuclear Physics Conference 2019, I review recent developments made in reaction models used to analyse data measured at radioactive-ion beam facilities to study exotic nuclear structures. I focus in particular on reactions like elastic scattering and breakup, which are used to study halo nuclei. Although these peculiar nuclei challenge usual nuclear-structure models, some can now be computed ab initio. This brief review illustrates the progresses made in nuclear-reaction theory in the last few years to improve the description of the projectile within reaction models. I dedicate this contribution to the memory of Mahir Hussein, who has significantly contributed to this field and who passed away in May this year.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the International Nuclear Physics Conference 2019. 8 pages, 8 figure

Sensitivity of one-neutron knockout of halo nuclei to their nuclear structure

Halo nuclei are located far from stability and exhibit a very peculiar structure. Due to their very short lifetime, they are often studied through reactions. Breakup reactions are of particular interest since their cross sections are large for these loosely-bound nuclei. Inclusive measurements of breakup--also called knockout reactions--have even higher statistics. In this proceeding, we study which nuclear-structure information can be inferred from the parallel-momentum distribution of the core of one-neutron halo nuclei after the knockout of its halo neutron. In particular, we analyse the influence of the ground-state wavefunction, the presence of excited states within the halo-nucleus spectrum and resonances in the core-neutron continuum. Our analysis shows that such observables are sensitive to the tail of the ground-state wavefunction. The presence of excited state decreases the breakup strength, and this flux is transferred to the inelastic-scattering channel. This indicates a conservation of the flux within each partial wave. We also show that the parallel-momentum distributions are insensitive to the existence of resonances within the continuum, they can thus be ignored in practice. This independence on the continuum argues that the parallel-momentum distributions are ideal observables to extract very precisely the ANCs of halo nuclei.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, INPC 2019 proceeding