Understanding the mechanisms of nuclear collisions: A complete study of the 10 B + 120 Sn reaction

Abstract

Background: Reactions involving exotic and stable weakly bound nuclei have been extensively studied in recent years. Although several models have been successfully used to explain particular reaction outcomes, the answers to many questions remain elusive. In previous works, we presented elastic, inelastic, and transfer angular distributions for the 10B + 120Sn system measured at ELab = 31.5, 33.0, 35.0, and 37.5 MeV. The data set was analyzed through coupled reaction channels calculations in the context of the double-folding São Paulo potential. Purpose: We investigate nuclear reaction mechanisms for systems involving weakly bound projectiles. Method: Angular distributions for several nuclear reaction processes were measured for the 10B + 120Sn system at ELab = 39.70 MeV. Results: The new data set involves angular distributions for elastic scattering, projectile and target inelastic excitations, one-neutron pickup transfer, one-proton stripping transfer, deuteron pickup transfer, and 3,4 He stripping transfer. We have also observed 10Be nuclei. The effect of the couplings to some nonelastic states on the angular distributions is discussed. Conclusion: The theoretical calculations within the coupled reaction channels formalism provide an overall good agreement with the corresponding inelastic, one-neutron stripping, one-proton pickup, one-deuteron pickup, and 3 He stripping transfer data. However, to improve the description of the elastic scattering angular distribution, the inclusion of additional channels in the coupling scheme might be necessary.