Analyzing power for the proton elastic scattering from neutron-rich 6He nucleus

TL;DR

This study measures the vector analyzing power in proton-6He elastic scattering at 71 MeV/nucleon, revealing sensitivity to nuclear structure models and challenging existing theoretical predictions.

Contribution

First measurement of vector analyzing power in proton-6He elastic scattering at this energy, using a novel polarized proton target at low magnetic field.

Findings

Data incompatible with t-matrix folding model predictions

Analyzing power sensitive to nuclear structure models

Alpha-core distribution may explain structure sensitivity

Abstract

Vector analyzing power for the proton-6He elastic scattering at 71 MeV/nucleon has been measured for the first time, with a newly developed polarized proton solid target working at low magnetic field of 0.09 T. The results are found to be incompatible with a t-matrix folding model prediction. Comparisons of the data with g-matrix folding analyses clearly show that the vector analyzing power is sensitive to the nuclear structure model used in the reaction analysis. The alpha-core distribution in 6He is suggested to be a possible key to understand the nuclear structure sensitivity.