Investigation of the structure of light exotic nuclei by proton elastic scattering in inverse kinematics

Abstract

In order to study the spatial structure of exotic nuclei, it was proposed at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI) to measure the differential cross section for small-angle proton elastic scattering in inverse kinematics. Several experiments in beams of 0.7-GeV/nucleon exotic nuclei were performed at the heavy-ion accelerator facility of GSI (Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany) by using the IKAR ionization spectrometer developed at PNPI. The IKAR ionization chamber filled with hydrogen at a pressure of 10 bar served simultaneously as a target and as a recoil-proton detector, which measured the recoil-proton energy. The beam-particle scattering angle was also measured. The results obtained for the cross sections in question were analyzed on the basis of the Glauber-Sitenko theory using phenomenological nuclear-density distributions with two free parameters. Nuclear-matter distributions and root-mean-square radii were found for the nuclei under investigation. The size of the halo in the 6He, 8He, 11Li, and 14Be nuclei was determined among other things. Information about neutron distributions in nuclei was deduced by combining the data obtained here with the known values of the radii of proton distributions. A sizable neutron skin was revealed in the 8Li, 9Li, and 12Be nuclei.