First experimental test of the ratio method for nuclear-reaction analysis

TL;DR

This paper presents the first experimental validation of the ratio method, a new observable for nuclear-reaction analysis, demonstrating its sensitivity to projectile structure and potential for broader quantum physics applications.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental test of the ratio method for nuclear reactions, confirming its effectiveness and opening new avenues for nuclear structure studies near the neutron dripline.

Findings

The ratio method's predictions are experimentally confirmed.

The method is more sensitive to projectile structure than individual cross sections.

Potential applications extend beyond nuclear physics to other quantum fields.

Abstract

Nuclear halos are very exotic quantal structures observed far from stability. Because of their short lifetime, they are mostly studied through reactions. The ratio method offers a new observable: the ratio of angular differential cross sections for breakup and scattering. It is predicted to be much more sensitive to the projectile structure than individual cross sections thanks to its independence of the reaction process. We test this new observable experimentally for the first time considering the collision of 11Be on C at 22.8 MeV/nucleon. We extend this analysis to similar data recently measured on Pb at 19.1 MeV/nucleon. Both analyses confirm the theoretical predictions, which opens the door to a new era in the study of nuclear structure near the neutron dripline. This should prove invaluable in conjunction with the start of FRIB. The ratio method could also be extended to other fields of quantum physics beyond nuclear reactions.