We investigate the structure of the neutron rich nucleus ${}^{19}\mathrm{C}$ through studies of its breakup in the Coulomb field of target nuclei. The breakup amplitude is calculated within an adiabatic treatment of the projectile excitation, which allows the use of the realistic wave functions for the relative motion between the fragments in the ground state of the projectile. The angular distribution of the center of mass of ${}^{19}\mathrm{C},$ longitudinal momentum distribution of ${}^{18}\mathrm{C},$ and relative energy spectrum of the fragments (neutron-${}^{18}\mathrm{C})$ following the breakup of ${}^{19}\mathrm{C}$ on heavy targets at beam energies below 100 MeV/nucleon have been computed using different configurations for the ground state wave function of ${}^{19}\mathrm{C}.$ In all cases, the data seem to favor a ${}^{18}\mathrm{C}{(0\mathrm{}}^{+})\otimes {1s}_{1/2}$ configuration for the ground state of ${}^{19}\mathrm{C},$ with a one-neutron separation energy of 0.53 MeV.

• Received 13 January 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.61.047301