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A. Bonaccorso

Publications and source records attributed to A. Bonaccorso.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

David Maurice Brink, 20 July 1930 - 8 March 2021

David Brink was one of the leading theoretical nuclear physicists of his generation. He made major contributions to the study of all aspects of nuclear physics embracing nuclear structure, nuclear scattering, and nuclear instability. His wide ranging interests and interactions with theorists and experimentalists alike helped him in providing both theoretical analysis and interpretations and suggesting experiments. He had the gift of visualising complex problems in simple terms and provided clear analysis of the underlying processes. He was an expert on the use of semi-classical methods which provided an intuitively clear picture of complex phenomena. His research work and books are characterised by scientific clarity, transparency, and depth. David possessed outstanding skills in mathematical computation, and he was an expert on special functions, group theory, and the Feynman path integral method. David had many research students and collaborated with a large number of scientists from across the world, for whom he was a source of scientific and human inspiration and admiration. His most fundamental belief was that research was a means of trying to discover and understand the beauties of Nature and explain them in simple terms to others. His absolute belief in the value of truth and his unselfish and generous attitude in sharing knowledge makes him an outstanding figure in contemporary Nuclear Physics.

physics.hist-ph

Quenching of single-particle strength from direct reactions with stable and rare-isotope beams

In this review article we discuss the present status of direct nuclear reactions and the nuclear structure aspects one can study with them. We discuss the spectroscopic information we can assess in experiments involving transfer reactions, heavy-ion-induced knockout reactions and quasifree scattering with (p,2p), (p,pn), and (e,e'p) reactions. In particular, we focus on the proton-to-neutron asymmetry of the quenching of the spectroscopic strength.

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Application of an ab-initio S-matrix to data analysis of transfer to the continuum reactions populating 11Be

Recently, the bound and continuum spectrum of 11Be has been calculated within the ab-initio no-core shell model with continuum (NCSMC) method successfully reproducing the parity inversion in the ground state. The continuum spectrum obtained is in agreement with known experimental levels. The S-matrix contained in the NCSMC continuum wave functions of the n+10Be system is used in this work for the first time in a Transfer-to-the-Continuum (TC) reaction calculation. The TC approach is applied to study the excitation energy spectrum of 11Be measured in the 9Be(18O,16O)11Be reaction at 84 MeV. Previously known levels are confirmed and theoretical and experimental evidence for a 9/2+ state at Ex=5.8 MeV is given, whose configuration is thought to be 10Be(2+)+n(d5/2).

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Nuclear astrophysics with radioactive ions at FAIR

The nucleosynthesis of elements beyond iron is dominated by neutron captures in the s and r processes. However, 32 stable, proton-rich isotopes cannot be formed during those processes, because they are shielded from the s-process flow and r-process beta-decay chains. These nuclei are attributed to the p and rp process. For all those processes, current research in nuclear astrophysics addresses the need for more precise reaction data involving radioactive isotopes. Depending on the particular reaction, direct or inverse kinematics, forward or time-reversed direction are investigated to determine or at least to constrain the desired reaction cross sections. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer unique, unprecedented opportunities to investigate many of the important reactions. The high yield of radioactive isotopes, even far away from the valley of stability, allows the investigation of isotopes involved in processes as exotic as the r or rp processes.

astro-ph.IM

Unbound exotic nuclei studied by projectile fragmentation

We call "projectile fragmentation" of neutron halo nuclei the elastic breakup (diffraction) reaction, when the observable studied is the neutron-core relative energy spectrum. This observable has been measured in relation to the Coulomb breakup on heavy target and recently also on light targets. Such data enlighten the effect of the neutron final state interaction with the core of origin. Projectile fragmentation is studied here by a time dependent model for the excitation of a nucleon from a bound state to a continuum resonant state in a neutron-core complex potential which acts as a final state interaction. The final state is described by an optical model S-matrix so that both resonant and non resonant states of any continuum energy can be studied as well as deeply bound initial states. It turns out that due to the coupling between the initial and final states, the neutron-core free particle phase shifts are modified, in the exit channel, by an additional phase. Some typical numerical calculations for the relevant observables are presented and compared to experimental data. It is suggest that the excitation energy spectra of an unbound nucleus might reflect the structure of the parent nucleus from whose fragmentation they are obtained.

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All orders proton breakup from exotic nuclei

We present a semiclassical method to treat the proton breakup from a weakly bound state in an exotic nucleus. The Coulomb interactions between the proton, core and target are treated to all orders and including the full multipole expansion of the Coulomb potential. The nuclear proton-target interaction is also treated to all orders. The core-target interaction is included as an absorption. The method is semi-analytical thus allowing for a detailed understanding of the short range and long range effects of the interactions in the reaction dynamics. It explains also the origin of possible asymmetries in the core parallel momentum distributions when the full multipole expansion of the Coulomb potential is used. Calculations are compared to results of other, fully numerical, methods and to experimental data in order to establish the accuracy and reliability of the method.

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$^{10}$Li spectrum from $^{11}$Li fragmentation

A recently developed time dependent model for the excitation of a nucleon from a bound state to a continuum resonant state in the system n+core is applied to the study of the population of the low energy continuum of the unbound $^{10}$Li system obtained from $^{11}$Li fragmentation. Comparison of the model results to new data from the GSI laboratory suggests that the reaction mechanism is dominated by final state effects rather than by the sudden process, but for the population of the l=0 virtual state, in which case the two mechanisms give almost identical results. There is also, for the first time, a clear evidence for the population of a d$_{5/2}$ resonance in $^{10}$Li.

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Unbound exotic nuclei studied by projectile fragmentation

We present a simple time dependent model for the excitation of a nucleon from a bound state to a continuum resonant state in a neutron-core complex potential which acts as a final state interaction. The final state is described by an optical model S-matrix so that both resonant and non resonant states of any continuum energy can be studied as well as deeply bound initial states. It is shown that, due to the coupling between the initial and final states, the neutron-core free particle phase shifts are modified, in the exit channel, by an additional phase. The effect of the additional phase on the breakup spectra is clarified. As an example the population of the low energy resonances of $^{11}$Be and of the unbound $^{13}$Be is discussed. Finally, we suggest that the excitation energy spectra of an unbound nucleus might reflect the structure of the parent nucleus from whose fragmentation they are obtained.

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All orders breakup of heavy exotic nuclei in a semiclassical model

We present a semiclassical and mostly analytical model of elastic neutron breakup reactions for exotic projectiles. Both nuclear and Coulomb induced reactions are considered and the potentials are treated to all orders in the interactions. Furthermore we introduce a technique which allows the use of the full Coulomb potential, thus including all multipoles besides the dipole. Results for deeply bound states as well as for halo initial states are presented and it is shown that experiments on heavy targets would be well suited to study exotic nuclei with tightly bound valence nucleons.

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Extended sudden approximation model for high-energy nucleon removal reactions

A model based on the sudden approximation has been developed to describe high energy single nucleon removal reactions. Within this approach, which takes as its starting point the formalism of Hansen \cite{Anne2}, the nucleon-removal cross section and the full 3-dimensional momentum distributions of the core fragments including absorption, diffraction, Coulomb and nuclear-Coulomb interference amplitudes, have been calculated. The Coulomb breakup has been treated to all orders for the dipole interaction. The model has been compared to experimental data for a range of light, neutron-rich psd-shell nuclei. Good agreement was found for both the inclusive cross sections and momentum distributions. In the case of $^{17}$C, comparison is also made with the results of calculations using the transfer-to-the-continuum model. The calculated 3-dimensional momentum distributions exhibit longitudinal and transverse momentum components that are strongly coupled by the reaction for s-wave states, whilst no such effect is apparent for d-waves. Incomplete detection of transverse momenta arising fromlimited experimental acceptances thus leads to a narrowing of the longitudinal distributions for nuclei with significant s-wave valence neutron configurations, as confirmed by the data. Asymmetries in the longitudinal momentum distributions attributed to diffractive dissociation are also explored.

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Unbound exotic nuclei studied by transfer to the continuum reactions

In this paper we show that the theory of transfer reactions from bound to continuum states is well suited to extract structure information from data obtained by performing "spectroscopy in the continuum". The low energy unbound states of nuclei such as $^{10}$Li and $^{5}$He can be analyzed and the neutron-core interaction, necessary to describe the corresponding borromean nuclei $^{11}$Li and $^{6}$He can be determined in a semi-phenomenological way. An application to the study of $^{10}$Li is then discussed and it is shown that the scattering length for s-states at threshold can be obtained from the ratio of experimental and theoretical cross sections. The scattering single particle states of the system n+$^{9}$Li are obtained in a potential model. The corresponding S-matrix is used to calculate the transfer cross section as a function of the neutron continuum energy with respect to $^{9}$Li. Three different reactions are calculated $^{9}Li(d,p)^{10}Li$, $^{9}Li(^{9}Be,^{8}Be)^{10}Li$, $^{9}Li(^{13}C,^{12}C)^{10}Li$, to check the sensitivity of the results to the target used and in particular to the transfer matching conditions. Thus the sensitivity of the structure information extracted from experimental data on the reaction mechanism is assessed.

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A non-perturbative approach to halo breakup

The theory of weakly bound cluster breakup, like halo nucleus breakup, needs an accurate treatment of the transitions from bound to continuum states induced by the nuclear and Coulomb potentials. When the transition probability is not very small, a non-perturbative framework might be necessary. Nuclear excitation dominates at small impact parameters whereas the Coulomb potential being long range acts over a larger impact parameter interval. In this article, we propose an effective breakup amplitude which meets a number of requirements necessary for an accurate quantitative description of the breakup reaction mechanism. Furthermore our treatment gives some insight on the interplay between time dependent perturbation theory and sudden approximation and it allows to include the nuclear and Coulomb potentials to all orders within an eikonal-like framework.

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Coulomb-Nuclear Coupling and Interference Effects in the Breakup of Halo Nuclei

Nuclear and Coulomb breakup of halo nuclei have been treated often as incoherent processes and structure information have been extracted from their study. The aim of this paper is to clarify whether interference effects and Coulomb-nuclear couplings are important and how they could modify the simple picture previously used. We calculate the neutron angular and energy distributions by using first order perturbation theory for the Coulomb amplitude and an eikonal approach for the nuclear breakup. This allows for a simple physical interpretation of the results which are mostly analytical. Our formalism includes the effect of the nuclear distortion of the neutron wave function on the Coulomb amplitude. This leads to a Coulomb-nuclear coupling term derived here for the first time which gives a small contribution for light targets but is of the same order of magnitude as nuclear breakup for heavy targets. The overall interference is constructive for light to medium targets and destructive for heavy targets. Thus it appears that Coulomb breakup experiments need to be analyzed with more accurate models than those used so far.

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Comparison of Transfer-to-Continuum and Eikonal Models of Projectile Fragmentation Reactions

Spectroscopic properties of nuclei are accessible with projectile fragmentation reactions, but approximations made in the reaction theory can limit the accuracy of the determinations. We examine here two models that have rather different approximations for the nucleon wave function, the target interaction, and the treatment of the finite duration of the reaction. The nucleon-target interaction is treated differently in the eikonal and the transfer-to-continuum model, but the differences are more significant for light targets. We propose a new parameterization with that in mind. We also propose a new formula to calculate the amplitude that combines the better treatment of the wave function in the eikonal model with the better treatment of the target interaction in the transfer-to-continuum model.

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Reaction and break-up cross sections of 11Li at 0.8 and 0.28 GeV/u

In this paper we calculate reaction and breakup cross sections for the two- neutron halo nucleus of $^{11}$Li using the optical limit of Glauber theory. Calculations are presented and compared to experimental data at 0.8 and 0.28 GeV/u on a series of targets. The $^{11}$Li nucleus is described as a three-body system, a core plus two neutrons, with a phenomenological neutron-core potential and a density dependent neutron-neutron interaction of zero range. Three different wave functions are constructed which have different $(2s_{1/2})^2$ and $(1p_{1/2})^2$ two-neutron components but correspond to the same binding energy close to the experimental value. We show that the agreement with all the experimental observables is achieved only if the 11Li wave function contains about 30% of $(2s_{1/2})^2$ configuration.

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Initial State Dependence of the Breakup of Weakly Bound Carbon Isotopes

The one-neutron nuclear breakup from the Carbon isotopes $^{19}$C and $^{17}$C, is calculated as an example of application of the theory of transfer to the continuum reactions in the formulation which includes spin coupling. The effect of the energy sharing between the parallel and transverse neutron momentum distributions is taken into account thus resulting in a theory which is more general than sudden eikonal approaches. Both effects are necessary to understand properly the breakup from not too weakly bound $l_i>1$ orbitals. Breakup which leaves the core into an excited state below particle threshold is also considered. The core-target interaction is treated in the smooth cut-off approximation. By comparing to presently available experimental data we show how to make some hypothesis on the quantum numbers and occupancy of the neutron initial state. Possible ambiguities in the interpretation of inclusive cross sections are discussed.

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Neutron Transfer to the Continuum Reactions

In this contribution we show that the theory of neutron transfer to the continuum reactions is an useful tool to study different characteristics of the single particle structure of nuclei. In one example we discuss properties of the single particle resonances in $^{208}Pb$. Another interesting application deals with the neutron breakup from weakly bound nuclei. Here one can use the theoretical calculations to help establishing the angular momentum of the decaying state which is experimentally not known.

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