Neutron halos in excited states of 12 B

Abstract

An experiment was done to search for states with a neutron halo in 12 B. The measurements were carried out at the cyclotron of the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) using Large Scattering Chamber (LSC). The idea of the work was to search for two states with the expected neutron halo, 1¯ and 2¯. Differential cross sections with excitation of 12 B states, including abovementioned states, were observed. The preliminary calculations on halo radii by the method of asymptotic normalization coefficients for the 2¯ and 1¯ states which are in a discrete spectrum gave following values: 5.6 fm and 7.4 fm, which is much larger than the radius of the valence neutron in the ground state. But strictly the presence of a neutron halo can be confirmed only for 1¯ state. The 2¯ state can be considered only as candidate for halo. An unexpected result was obtained for the 3¯, 3.39 MeV state, which is in continuum 19 keV above the decay threshold 12 B → 11 B + n, preliminary estimation for its halo radius is ∼ 6.5 fm. This indicates that the halo can be present in this state as well. But strict conditions for neutron halo are not fulfilled in the same way as for 2¯ state. Until now, the neutron halo in unbound states has been observed only for the members of the rotational bands.