Study of transfer and breakup reactions with the plastic box

The study of transfer reactions with heavy-ion projectiles is complicated by the frequent presence of three or more nuclei in the final state. One prolific source of three-body reactions is the production of a primary ejectile in an excited state above a particle threshold. A subset of transfer reactions, viz., those producing ejectiles in bound states, can be identified experimentally. This has been accomplished with a 4 π detector constructed of one-millimeter-thick scintillator paddles of dimension 20 cm x 20 cm. The paddles are arranged in the form of a cube centered around the target with small entrance and exit apertures for the beam and the projectile-like fragments (PLF). The detection of a light particle (e.g., a proton or an alpha particle) in coincidence with a PLF indicates a breakup reaction. The absence of any such coincidence indicates a reaction in which all the charge lost by the projectile was transferred to the target. With this technique we have studied the transfer and breakup reactions induced by 220 and 341 MeV 20Ne ions on a gold target. Ejectiles from Li to Ne have been measured at several scattering angles. The absolute cross sections, angular distributions and energy spectra for the transfer and breakup reactions are presented. Relatively large cross sections are observed for the complete transfer of up to seven units of charge (i.e., a nitrogen nucleus). The gross features and trends in the energy spectra for transfer and breakup reactions are similar. However, small differences, in particular for the widths of the energy spectra, are significant. (author)