Scaling laws for near-barrier Coulomb and nuclear breakup

1/3 T . We then confirm the validity of this expression performing continuum-discretized coupled-channels (CDCC) calculations. Scaling laws for the Coulomb breakup cross section are also investigated. In this case, our CDCC calculations indicate that this cross section has a linear dependence on the atomic number of the target. This behavior is explained by qualitative arguments. Our findings, which are consistent with previously obtained results for higher energies, are important when planning for experiments involving exotic weakly bound nuclei.