Understanding the two neutron transfer reaction mechanism in 206Pb(18O,16O)208Pb

Abstract

The absolute cross sections for elastic scattering and two-neutron transfer reaction for 18O + 206Pb system have been measured at an incident energy near the Coulomb barrier. Detailed coupled reaction channel calculations have been carried out for description of the measured angular distributions for the elastic scattering and transfer reactions simultaneously. The two-neutron transfer reaction 206Pb(18O, 16O)208Pb in the g.s. → g.s. transition is analyzed in (i) extreme cluster model assuming a di-neutron transfer, (ii) two-step successive transfer, and (iii) microscopic approach (independent coordinate scheme) of simultaneous transfer of two neutrons. The relative importance of one step simultaneous transfer versus two-step successive transfer has been studied. Present analysis suggests dominance of cluster transfer of a di-neutron. The contribution from the two-step sequential processes is less significant, however, the combined “two-step plus simultaneous (microscopic)” calculations give a reasonably good agreement with the measurement. The possibility of multi-step route via projectile and target excitations and contribution from such indirect transfer paths to the present two-neutron transfer cross section has been investigated.