Experimental determination of the E2 component in the Coulomb dissociation of 8B

Abstract

Angular distributions of the Coulomb dissociation of 8B in the field of 208Pb at Ein = 51.9 MeV/u were measured at 0° ⩽ θ8 ⩽ 10° and 0.5 ⩽ Erel ⩽ 2.25 MeV. The data were analyzed using a quantum mechanical method where E1, E2 and ℓ = 2 nuclear amplitudes are included. Although systematic effects could be large, the extracted E2 components appear to be considerably smaller than any theoretical predictions reported so far.