Narrow Results

Three-body systems are studied in the framework of the Boundary Condition Model, in which the relevant interactions are expressed in terms of the scattering lengths of the two-body subsystems. We demonstrate explicitly the role of resonant states in the two-body subsystems and of multiple scattering between the constituents in producing a weakly bound three-body system, i.e. a Borromean nucleus. We obtain qualitative relations between the spatial extension of the three-body bound state, its energy, and the scattering lengths in the subsystems. The results are compared with experimental data for the Borromean nucleus ¹¹Li and ¹⁴Be.

Using a three-body model with density-dependent contact interaction, we discuss the role of dineutron correlation in the ground state properties as well as in the dipole excitation of typical weakly-bound Borromean nuclei, ¹¹Li and ⁶He. We show that, while both the nuclei manifest themselves similar strong dineutron correlations to each other in the ground state, the energy distributions for the two emitted neutrons from the dipole excitation are considerably different. We also discuss briefly the diproton correlation in a proton-rich Borromean nucleus, ¹⁷Ne.