Coulomb excitation of unstable nuclei at intermediate energies

We investigate the Coulomb excitation of low-lying states of unstable nuclei in intermediate energy collisions (Elab∼10-500MeV/nucleon). It is shown that the cross sections for the E1 and E2 transitions are larger at lower energies, much less than 10 MeV/nucleon. Retardation effects and Coulomb distortion are found to be both relevant for energies as low as 10 MeV/nucleon and as high as 500 MeV/nucleon. Implications for studies at radioactive beam facilities are discussed.