Electron scattering on two-neutron halo nuclei: The case of $^6$He

Abstract

The formalism to describe electron scattering reactions on two-neutron halo nuclei is developed. The halo nucleus is described as a three-body system (core+n+n), and the wave function is obtained by solving the Faddeev equations in coordinate space. We discuss elastic and quasielastic scattering using the impulse approximation to describe the reaction mechanism. We apply the method to investigate the case of electron scattering on $^6$He. Spectral functions, response functions, and differential cross sections are calculated for both neutron knockout and $\alpha$ knockout by the electron.Comment: 17 pages, figures include