Breakup reactions of two-neutron halo nuclei

Investigation of reactions initiated in collisions of beams of unstable nuclei with nuclear targets has resulted in the discovery of a new type of nuclear structure, the halo, in some light nuclei at the boundary of nucleon stability. A survey of different reactions with two-neutron halo nuclei and their use for gaining information on the structure of exotic nuclei is presented. Kinematically complete breakup reactions, which provide the possibility of obtaining quite reliable information on the structure of the ground state and the continuum of nuclei, are considered in detail. The microscopic four-body model of breakup reactions for two-neutron halo nuclei with account of characteristic specific features of their structure is formulated. The model is based on the distorted wave approximation and is applicable for analysis of low excitations of the continuum near the breakup threshold, the region most sensitive to manifestation of specific features of the halo structure. The described approach enables the calculation of all observables of kinematically complete experiments in nucleus-nucleus collisions at intermediate energies for which one-step processes dominate, and creates the basis for the spectroscopy of continua via successive analysis of various correlation cross sections available in kinematically complete experiments.