Recoil distance transmission method: Measurement of interaction cross sections of excited states with fast rare-isotope beams

The possible appearance of nuclear halos in ground and excited states close to the particle-decay threshold is of great importance in the investigation of nuclear structure and few-body correlations at the limit of stability. In order to obtain direct evidence of the halo structure manifested in nuclear excited states, we have considered a new method to measure the interaction cross sections of excited states. The combination of the transmission method and the recoil distance Doppler-shift method with a plunger device enables us to measure the number of interactions of the excited states in a target. Formulae to determine the interaction cross section are derived, and key issues to realize measurements are discussed. Dominant sources of errors are uncertainties in the excited-state lifetimes and γ-ray yields. We examine prototype experiments and perform simulations to study the impact of each uncertainty on the final result. This method provides a novel opportunity to perform cross section measurements on the excited states of rare isotopes.