Directed and elliptic flows of neutrons and light charged particles were measured for the reaction 197 Au+ 197 Au at 400 MeV/nucleon incident energy within the ASY-EOS experimental campaign at the GSI laboratory. The detection system consisted of the Large Area Neutron Detector LAND, combined with parts of the CHIMERA multidetector, of the ALADIN Time-of-flight Wall, and of the Washington-University Microball detector. The latter three arrays were used for the event characterization and reaction-plane reconstruction. In addition, an array of triple telescopes, KRATTA, 2 was used for complementary measurements of the isotopic composition and flows of light charged particles.From the comparison of the elliptic flow ratio of neutrons with respect to charged particles with UrQMD predictions, a value γ = 0.72 ± 0.19 is obtained for the power-law coefficient describing the density dependence of the potential part in the parametrization of the symmetry energy. It represents a new and more stringent constraint for the regime of supra-saturation density and confirms, with a considerably smaller uncertainty, the moderately soft to linear density dependence deduced from the earlier FOPI-LAND data. The densities probed are shown to reach beyond twice saturation.

Collisions induced by 9;10;11 Be on a 64 Zn target at the same c.m. energy were studied. For the first time, strong effects of the 11 Be halo structure on elastic-scattering and reaction mechanisms at energies near the Coulomb barrier are evidenced experimentally. The elastic-scattering cross section of the 11 Be halo nucleus shows unusual behavior in the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak angular region. The extracted total-reaction cross section for the 11 Be collision is more than double the ones measured in the collisions induced by 9;10 Be. It is shown that such a strong enhancement of the total-reaction cross section with 11 Be is due to transfer and breakup processes. A hundred years after Rutherford's scattering experiment [1], heavy-ion-elastic-scattering angular distributions (AD) are usually plotted as a ratio of the Rutherford cross section (i.e., pure Coulomb scattering). Such representation usually shows a decrease of the elastic cross section with the angle due to absorption at small impact parameters by nonelastic processes, and an oscillatory behavior. The latter, using the language of optics, is described in terms of refraction by nonabsorbing lenses (Coulomb rainbow model) or diffraction by sharp-edged, nonrefracting apertures (Fraunhofer or Fresnel diffraction model). However, the refraction or diffraction descriptions are oversimplifications of the realistic process; rather, the nucleus behaves as a ''cloudy crystal ball.'' The elasticscattering AD may show a peak resulting from the interference between the Coulomb and nuclear amplitudes (Coulomb-nuclear interference peak) [2], which, in analogy with the Coulomb rainbow model, is sometimes called the rainbow peak. Since elastic scattering is a peripheral process, it does not give information on the interior region of nuclei. It probes the tail of the wave function, and hence one can learn about surface properties, such as size of nuclei and surface diffuseness. Therefore, elastic scattering is an ideal tool to study peculiar nuclear structures as, for example, the nuclear halo. Such structure originates when very weakly bound nucleon(s) can tunnel into the classically forbidden region, giving rise to a diffuse tail surrounding a well-bound core. The behavior of the system in nuclear reactions is mostly determined by the tail of the wave function [3]. The reaction mechanisms may also be affected by the weak binding: at energies around the Coulomb barrier, couplings between the entrance channel and the continuum [4][5][6][7][8], as well as to the various reaction channels [9][10][11][12], are expected to be very important. Direct reactions, such as breakup or transfer, may be favored owing to the low binding energy, the extended tail of halo nuclei, and the large Q values for selected transfer channels.Almost all elastic-scattering and reaction mechanism studies around the barrier with halo nuclei have been performed with the 2n halo nucleus 6 He. All authors agree that, due to the 6 He structure, one has an enhancement of the total-reaction (T...

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In this paper details of the experimental procedure and data analysis of the collision of 11 Be+ 64 Zn around the Coulomb barrier are described and discussed in the framework of different theoretical approaches. In a previous work [A. Di Pietro et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 022701 (2010).], the elastic scattering angular distribution of the collisions 9,10 Be+ 64 Zn as well as the angular distribution for the quasielastic scattering and transfer/breakup cross sections for the 11 Be+ 64 Zn reaction were briefly reported. The suppression of the quasielastic angular distribution in the Coulomb-nuclear interference angular region observed in the collision of the 11 Be halo nucleus with respect to the other two beryllium isotopes was interpreted as being caused by a long-range absorption owing to the long decay length of the 11 Be wave function. In this paper, new continuum-discretized coupledchannel calculations of the 11 Be+ 64 Zn reaction are reported in the attempt to interpret the effect of coupling with the breakup channels on the measured cross sections. The calculations show that the observed suppression of the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak is caused by a combined effect of Coulomb and nuclear couplings to the breakup channels.

The inclusive breakup for the 11 Li þ 208 Pb reaction at energies around the Coulomb barrier has been measured for the first time. A sizable yield of 9 Li following the 11 Li dissociation has been observed, even at energies well below the Coulomb barrier. Using the first-order semiclassical perturbation theory of Coulomb excitation it is shown that the breakup probability data measured at small angles can be used to extract effective breakup energy as well as the slope of BðE1Þ distribution close to the threshold. Fourbody continuum-discretized coupled-channels calculations, including both nuclear and Coulomb couplings between the target and projectile to all orders, reproduce the measured inclusive breakup cross sections and support the presence of a dipole resonance in the 11 Li continuum at low excitation energy.

Fusion cross sections were measured for the exotic proton-halo nucleus ⁸B incident on a ⁵⁸Ni target at several energies near the Coulomb barrier. This is the first experiment to report on the fusion of a proton-halo nucleus. The resulting excitation function shows a striking enhancement with respect to expectations for normal projectiles. Evidence is presented that the sum of the fusion and breakup yields saturates the total reaction cross section.

Experimental results of the elastic scattering of 6 He on 208 Pb at E LAB = 22 MeV, measured at the CRC facility (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), are presented, including results on the 4 He production channel. These data were taken with full angular coverage and high angular resolution. Both experimental cross sections are compared with continuum discretized coupled channels and distorted-wave Born approximation calculations, where direct breakup and transfer to the continuum processes are considered. The elastic data confirm the absence of the Coulomb rainbow, while the distribution of α particles indicates that such production is mostly generated by transfer to the continuum.

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