Coulomb excitation of unstable nuclei at intermediate energies

Abstract

We investigate the Coulomb excitation of low-lying states of unstable nuclei in intermediate energy collisions ($E_{\mathrm{lab}}\sim 10\text{–}500\text{MeV}/\text{nucleon}$). It is shown that the cross sections for the E1 and E2 transitions are larger at lower energies, much less than 10 MeV/nucleon. Retardation effects and Coulomb distortion are found to be both relevant for energies as low as 10 MeV/nucleon and as high as 500 MeV/nucleon. Implications for studies at radioactive beam facilities are discussed.