Quantitative analysis of two-neutron correlations in the 12C(18O, 16O)14C reaction

The 12C(18O,16O)14C and 12,13C(18O,17O)13,14C reactions are studied at 84 MeV. Mass distributions and energy spectra of the ejectiles are measured, indicating the selectivity of these reactions to populate two- and one-neutron configurations in the states of the residual nucleus, respectively. The measured absolute cross-section angular distributions are analyzed by exact finite range coupled reaction channel calculations based on a parameter free double-folding optical potential. The form factors for the (18O,16O) reaction are extracted within an extreme cluster and independent particles scheme with shell-model-derived coupling strengths. The results show that the measured cross sections are accurately described for the first time without the need for any arbitrary scaling factor. The (18O,16O) reaction is thus found to be a powerful tool for quantitative spectroscopic studies of pair configurations in nuclear states.