# Coulomb excitation of unstable nuclei at intermediate energies

## TL;DR

This paper studies Coulomb excitation of unstable nuclei at intermediate energies, highlighting how cross sections vary with energy and emphasizing the importance of retardation and Coulomb distortion effects across a broad energy range.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Coulomb excitation mechanisms and effects at energies from 10 to 500 MeV/nucleon, relevant for radioactive beam experiments.

## Key findings

- Cross sections for E1 and E2 transitions are larger at energies below 10 MeV/nucleon.
- Retardation effects are significant across the entire energy range.
- Coulomb distortion impacts excitation processes from 10 to 500 MeV/nucleon.

## Abstract

We investigate the Coulomb excitation of low-lying states of unstable nuclei in intermediate energy collisions ($E_{lab}\sim10-500$ MeV/nucleon). It is shown that the cross sections for the $E1$ and $E2$ transitions are larger at lower energies, much less than 10 MeV/nucleon. Retardation effects and Coulomb distortion are found to be both relevant for energies as low as 10 MeV/nucleon and as high as 500 MeV/nucleon. Implications for studies at radioactive beam facilities are discussed.