Theory of Coulomb Disintegration of Complex Nuclei

A general formulation of the Coulomb disintegration of complex nuclei is presented using the semiclassical approximation. This assumes that the center of gravity of the incident nucleus moves along a Rutherford orbit in the Coulomb field of the target nucleus. The main point of the formulation is the following: The configuration space of the product nuclei is divided into the external region and the internal region. In the external region, the wave function is assumed to be an outgoing free spherical wave. This wave function is then connected continuously to the internal wave function, which we take, following the Kapur-Peierls method, to be a superposition of compound-state eigenfunctions of the incident nucleus. This method is applied to the Coulomb disintegration of ${}_{}{}^6{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ and compared with the results which Gluckstern and Breit have already obtained. Some discussion about higher order corrections, which modify considerably the first-order perturbation calculation in the case of ${}_{}{}^6{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$, and about the stripping mechanism is added.