A new experimental approach to investigate intermediate-energy proton elastic scattering and breakup reactions on exotic nuclei in inverse kinematics

Absolute differential cross-sections for elastic (p,6,8He) scattering were obtained at angles corresponding to 0.05⩽|t|⩽0.125 (GeV/c)2 of the four-momentum transfer squared (−t) leading to the first diffraction minimum and spanning more than two orders of magnitude. They complement an earlier measurement at smaller angles 0.0025⩽|t|⩽0.05 (GeV/c)2 performed at the same energy with an active target. Both data sets agree well in the overlap region t≈0.05 (GeV/c)2 and enable a refined and comparative study of the radial distribution of the nuclear matter density.