Within the pure Coulomb breakup mechanism, we investigate the one-neutron removal reaction of the type $A(a,b\gamma )X$ with ${}^{11}\mathrm{Be}$ and ${}^{19}\mathrm{C}$ projectiles on a heavy target nucleus ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ at the beam energy of 60 MeV/nucleon. Our intention is to examine the prospect of using these reactions to study the structure of neutron-rich nuclei. Integrated partial cross sections and momentum distributions for the ground as well as excited bound states of core nuclei are calculated within the finite-range distorted-wave Born approximation as well as within the adiabatic model of the Coulomb breakup. Our results are compared with those obtained in the studies of the reactions on a light target where the breakup proceeds via the pure nuclear mechanism. We find that the transitions to excited states of the core are quite weak in the Coulomb dominated process as compared to the pure nuclear breakup.

• Received 4 January 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.63.054608