COULOMB REACCELERATION AS A CLOCK FOR NUCLEAR-REACTIONS

A possible measure of the time scale for projectile break-up reactions is the acceleration in the target Coulomb field following the excitation process. We model this by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation in one dimension, comparing with simple arguments based on the uncertainty principle. We find that momentum shifts are generally much larger than given by simple arguments based on classical mechanics and the uncertainty principle.