Investigation of the nuclear matter distribution of Ni-56 by elastic proton scattering in inverse kinematics

We have measured the nuclear-matter distribution of the doubly-magic N = Z nucleus Ni-56 by investigating elastic proton scattering in inverse kinematics. The radioactive beam of Ni-56 was injected and stored in the experimental storage ring (ESR, GSI) and interacted with an internal hydrogen gas-jet target. The high revolution frequency of the ions in the ring enabled a high luminosity, despite the low density of the target being used. This way, measurements at very low momentum transfers became possible. By measuring the energy and the scattering angle of the recoiling protons, we were able to separate the elastic reaction channel from inelastic scattering to the first excited 2(+) state of Ni-56 and deduced the differential cross section of Ni-56 (p, p)(56) Ni. The data were analyzed within the framework of the Glauber multiple-scattering theory in order to extract the nuclear-matter radius and radial matter distribution of Ni-56. Parameterizing the matter distribution with the phenomenological Symmetrized Fermi distribution, a preliminary value of 3.5 fm for the rms matter radius was deduced. This experiment was part of an EXL (EXotic nuclei studied in Light-ion induced reactions at storage rings) campaign at GSI in 2012 and was the first successful investigation of nuclear reactions with a stored radioactive beam ever.