Radius of B-8 halo from the asymptotic normalization coefficient

Abstract

The experimental asymptotic normalization coefficient determined from peripheral transfer reactions is used to obtain the root-mean-square radius of the wave function for the loosely bound proton in SB. It is shown that the asymptotic region contributes most and that matching of the interior wave function with the asymptotic part yields a nearly model-independent radius. We obtain [r(2)] (1/2) = 4.20 +/- 0.22 fm for the root-mean-square (rms) radius of the last proton, much larger than the rms radius of the Be-7 core. This large value and the fact that the asymptotic part of the proton wave function contributes 85% to the rms radius are good sign that B-8 is a halo nucleus.