Simplistic distorted-wave Born approximation interpretation of the 11Li(p, t)9Li reaction

The reaction Li-11(p, t)Li-9(gs) at an incident energy of 4.3 MeV is interpreted in terms of a simplistic distorted-wave Born approximation, which assumes simultaneous transfer of the halo neutrons. The halo neutrons involved in the reaction is treated as either a di-neutron cluster or individual entities. Either of these approaches appears to be a good approximation of the reaction mechanism, as would be expected from earlier studies. The dominant contribution to the yield of the reaction comes from the known (2s(1/2))(2) neutron structure component of the ground state of Li-11. Furthermore, the cross-section angular distribution seems to be relatively insensitive to the fact that Li-11 has an anomalously large radius due to its Borromean halo properties. Significantly this simple treatment of the reaction is in much better agreement with the experimental angular distribution than previous sophisticated calculations. The relevance and limitations of a more advanced theoretical treatment which includes coupled channel and sequential transfer are discussed in the context of the present results.