A microscopic approximation for sequential decay processes in light nuclear systems

An approximative treatment for sequential decay processes is presented which uses the cluster model reaction formalism. In the case of a dominating sequential decay mechanism, the break-up amplitude is decomposed in two factors which can be obtained from two-particle reaction calculations. This factorization is essentially based on the same idea as the Watson-Migdal formalism. The method is applied to the α + d →5He + p → α + n + p break-up. The results are in good agreement with recent experimental data.