Elastic scattering and fragmentation of halo nuclei

The elastic scattering of the exotic halo nucleus 11Li on 12C has been studied at an energy of 60 MeV/nucleon, along with that of the A=11 isobar 11C. The experimental results are compared with several different theoretical predictions, and an analysis of the total reaction cross section is presented. In addition, data on the fragmentation of 12,14Be on 12C at the same energy per nucleon are given. The 12Be fragments from the interaction of 14Be with 12C display a narrow longitudinal momentum distribution and a two-component angular distribution, both attributable to the halo structure of this nucleus. This is the first experiment in which both longitudinal and transverse momentum transfer distributions have been simultaneously measured. (author). 11 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs