A study of proton breakup from exotic nuclei through various reaction mechanisms in 40 A - 80 AMeV energy range

We have studied the single proton breakup from weakly bound exotic nuclei due to several reaction mechanisms separately and their total and the interference effects, in order to clarify quantitatively which mechanism would dominate the measured observables. We have considered: first, the recoil effect of the core-target Coulomb potential which we distinguish from the direct proton-target Coulomb potential, and secondly the nuclear breakup, which consists of stripping and diffraction. Thus, we have calculated the absolute values of breakup cross sections and parallel momentum distributions (LMD) for ⁸B and ¹⁷F projectiles on a light and a heavy target in a range of intermediate incident energies (40 A-80 A MeV) for each reaction mechanism. Furthermore the interference among the two Coulomb effects and nuclear diffraction has been studied in detail. The calculation of the direct and recoil Coulomb effects separately and of their interference is the new and most relevant aspect of this work. (authors)