Low energy reactions of halo nuclei

Abstract

Halo nuclei are extreme nuclear states consisting of one or more weakly-bound valence nucleons spatially decoupled from a tightly bound nuclear core. The weakly bound nature of the halo dominates the reaction probability, but the specific reaction mechanisms depend also on the core and target nuclei. Despite of the inherent complexity of the reaction process, simple two-body models and direct reaction theories can be used to extract useful information of the structure of the halo nucleus and its dynamics. These ideas are discussed using selected experiments of Coulomb barrier reactions with one- and two- neutron halo systems.