NUCLEAR MATTER DISTRIBUTIONS of NEUTRON-RICH Li-ISOTOPES from PROTON ELASTIC SCATTERING in INVERSE KINEMATICS
The method of proton elastic scattering at intermediate energies, which was already proven for neutron-rich helium isotopes to be well suited for obtaining accurate and detailed information on nuclear matter distributions of halo nuclei, was recently applied for investigation of neutron-rich Li-isotopes using secondary beams from the Fragment Separator at GSI at an energy near 700 MeV/u. Along with the radioactive 8,9,11Li isotopes, the stable 6Li nucleus was investigated to allow for a comparison of the matter distributions between the A = 6 nuclei 6Li and 6He. The experimental setup consisted of the ionization chamber IKAR which served simultaneously as a high-pressure hydrogen target and as a recoil proton detector, and a forward spectrometer for tracking and identifying the projectile nuclei.
For determining the nuclear matter distributions the measured differential cross-sections have been compared to those calculated in the frame of the Glauber multiple scattering theory using various parametrizations for the nucleon density distributions as input. The results on the nuclear matter radii and the matter distributions are presented. The nuclear matter distribution deduced for the 11Li nucleus exhibits a very pronounced halo structure. The present data allow also for a sensitive test of theoretical model calculations on the structure of the neutron-rich nuclei. A few examples are given.
- halo nuclei
- proton elastic scattering
- nuclear matter radii
- matter density distributions
- neutron-rich Li isotopes
