Binding energy constraint on matter radius and soft dipole excitations of C-22

Journal article, 2012

An unusually large value of the C-22 matter radius has recently been extracted from measured reaction cross sections. The giant size can be explained by a very loose binding that is, however, not known experimentally yet. Within the three-body cluster model we have explored the sensitivity of the s-motion-dominated C-22 geometry to the two-neutron separation energy. A low energy of a few tens of keV is required to reach the alleged experimental lower value of the matter radius, while the experimental mean radius requires an extremely tiny binding. The dependence of the C-22 charge radius on the two-neutron separation energy is also presented. The soft dipole mode in C-22 is shown to be strongly affected by the loose binding and should be studied in the process of Coulomb fragmentation.