Momentum distributions of particles from nuclear breakup of high-energy three-body halos are calculated incorporating effects of final state interactions. The same two-body interactions between the particles are used to calculate both the ground state structure and the final state of the reaction processes. The ground state wave function reproduces size and energy of the halo nucleus. First we give a general and detailed description of the method. Then we investigate the effect of final state interactions in neutron removal and core breakup reactions for one- and two-dimensional momentum distributions. We compute specifically core and neutron momentum distributions from ${}^{11}$Li fragmentation and compare those with available experimental data. We conclude that 20–30 % of the three-body wave function describing ${}^{11}$Li corresponds to a neutron-core relative $p$ state. The fragmentation data strongly suggest that ${}^{10}$Li has an $s$ state below 200 keV and a $p$ state around 500 keV.

• Received 29 March 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.55.1327