Heavy cluster knockout reaction (16)O((12)C,2(12)C)(4)He and the nature of the (12)C-(12)C interaction potential.

: The heavy cluster knockout reaction (16)O((12)C,2(12)C)(4)He performed for the first time, reveals the true nature of the (12)C-(12)C interaction. The observed cross section is enhanced by almost 2 orders of magnitude over the conventional zero range distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) predictions. An attractive (12)C-(12)C optical potential, as obtained in the folding model, does not explain the enhanced cross section in the finite range (FR) DWIA framework. The inclusion of a hard core of fairly long range ∼3.65  fm explains the data. The present investigation of (16)O((12)C,2(12)C)(4)He along with the (12)C-(12)C elastic scattering also proves beyond doubt that the folding model's deep attractive heavy ion potentials are unsuitable to describe the highly overlapping heavy ions. The application of FR-DWIA opens up new avenues to use the heavy core knockout for the detailed investigation of heavy as well as Borromean halo nuclei.