Momentum distributions in light halo nuclei and structure constraints

Abstract

The core recoil momentum distribution of neutron-rich isotopes of light exotic nuclei is studied within a three-body model, where the nuclei are described by a core and two neutrons, with interactions dominated by the s-wave channel. In our framework, the two-body subsystems should have large scattering lengths in comparison with the interaction range allowing to use a three-body model with a zero-range force. The ground-state halo wave functions in momentum space are obtained by using as inputs the two-neutron separation energy and the energies of the singlet neutron-neutron and neutron-core virtual states. Within our model, we obtain the momentum probability densities for the Borromean exotic nuclei 11Li and 22C. In the case of the core recoil momentum distribution of 11Li, a fair reproduction of the experimental data was obtained, without free parameters, considering only the two-body low-energies. By analysing the obtained core momentum distribution in face of recent experimental data, we verify that such data are constraining the 22C two-neutron separation energy to a value between 100 and 400 keV.