Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne
HK 25: Nuclear Astrophysics III
HK 25.2: Talk
Wednesday, March 18, 2026, 14:15–14:30, PHIL A 602
Analysis of Coulomb Breakup of Clustered Nuclei for the Determination of Radiative Capture Cross Sections: The case of α(d, γ)6Li — •Monica Sanjinez Ortiz and Pierre Capel — Institut für Kernphysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
In the study of nucleosynthesis, the cross section of radiative capture reactions involving charged particles plays a fundamental role. However, the direct experimental measurement of these cross sections is difficult at low energy. Coulomb breakup of nuclei on a heavy target has been considered as an alternative method to infer the low-energy cross sections in an indirect way, as it can be understood as the time reversed process of radiative captures. Two Coulomb breakup experiments to infer the α(d, γ)6Li radiative capture cross section have been performed in the past. With a fully dynamical reaction model, we report here on a new theoretical analysis of these experiments. Our results indicate that the breakup of 6Li onto 208Pb at 150 A MeV and 26 A MeV is characterized by marked Coulomb-nuclear interferences. Moreover, the analysis points towards a nuclear dominated process at forward angles as Coulomb breakup is suppressed due to the α-d clustered structure of 6Li. Consequently, extracting radiative capture cross sections from data at these energies is unfeasible. The forward Coulomb breakup suppression may be a general feature of breakup processes involving N=Z clustered nuclei. We underscore the importance of alternative indirect methods for the determination of cross sections for astrophysics such as photodissociation induced by electrons.
Keywords: Nuclear reactions; Coulomb breakup; Nucleosynthesis; Indirect methods