Importance of the continuum–continuum couplings in the 6Li elastic breakup on different target masses

Abstract

A theoretical study of Li6 breakup on target masses ranging from A=58 to 208 is performed. It is obtained that when continuum–continuum couplings are included in the potential coupling matrix, they substantially reduce the total and nuclear breakup cross sections, while the Coulomb breakup cross sections for the medium and heavy target masses are increased. When these couplings are excluded, we show that the total and nuclear breakup cross sections depend linearly on AT1/3, namely they decrease linearly as the mass of the target increases. In the same case, the Coulomb breakup cross section depends linearly with the charge of the target ZT (decreases as ZT increases). We found that this linearity is destroyed when these couplings are included. However, in this case, it is the Coulomb-nuclear interference that also depends linearly with the target charge (increase with ZT).