Nuclear structure studies on exotic nuclei by direct reactions in inverse kinematics

The investigation of light ion induced direct reactions with exotic beams in inverse kinematics gives access to a wide field of nuclear structure studies in the region far off stability. An overview on the experimental methods and on the physics motivation is given. Elastic proton scattering on neutron rich light nuclei at intermediate energies was investigated recently for the first time. This method is demonstrated to be an effective means for studying the radial structure of these nuclei. The nuclear matter radii of "6He and "8He were determined in a rather model independent way, and evidence was obtained for a pronounced neutron skin in both isotopes. The data allow also a sensitive test of microscopic theoretical model calculations. The investigation of few nucleon transfer reactions in inverse kinematics provides a variety of new information on nuclear structure, as well as astrophysical questions. The concept of a large solid angle time projection ionization chamber as an active target for such experiments at low energies is discussed. (orig.)20 refs.SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RO 801(97-09) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman