Four-body DWBA calculations of the Coulomb breakup of 6He Original Research Article

We investigate the Coulomb breakup of the two-neutron-halo nucleus 6He by extending the framework of the finite-range postform distorted-wave Born approximation theory introduced earlier for the description of the breakup of one-neutron-halo nuclei. The model can use the realistic three-body wave function for the 6He ground state. Calculations have been performed for energy, total and parallel momentum distributions of 4He fragment. The two-body 4He–neutron and neutron–neutron correlations have also been calculated. Our results are compared with those of an adiabatic model of the Coulomb-breakup reactions. The two theories lead to almost identical results. Comparisons are also made with the available experimental data. It is found that the pure Coulomb breakup can describe the bulk of the data taken at below grazing angles. However, a rigorous description of all the available data requires the consideration of the nuclear-breakup effects.