Study of Nuclear Matter Distributions of Halo Nuclei 6He and 8He with Elastic Proton Scattering

The study of neutron-rich light nuclei near the drip line has attracted much attention as they exhibit a particular nuclear structure, namely an extended distribution of the valence neutrons surrounding a compact core. Recently the elastic proton scattering from 6,8He and 8,9,11Li at 700 MeV/u using an inverse kinematics was successfully measured at GSI [1,2]. A high-pressure hydrogen-filled ionization chamber was used as the target and a proton detector. The previous experiments were performed in the small range 0.002 ≤| t |≤ 0.05 (GeV/c)2 of the four-momentum transfer squared t and have yielded valuable information on the nuclear sizes and radial structure of nuclear matter density distributions with the aid of the Glauber multiple scattering theory. Recently, a novel experimental approach has been accomplished with the aim to deduce the differential p 6,8He cross sections in the t-range 0.05 ≤| t |≤ 0.25 (GeV/c)2 close to the expected first diffraction minimum.