Quadrupole Contribution to Two Neutron Removal in Heavy Ion Collisions

C. J. Benesh

Published 1992-10-04Version 1

In this report, electric quadrupole corrections to the two neutron removal cross section measured in heavy ion collisions are estimated for $^{197}$Au and $^{59}$Co targets. The quadrupole process is assumed to proceed primarily through excitation of the giant isovector quadrupole resonance, which then decays by neutron emission. For $^{59}$Co, the contribution from E2 radiation is found to be small, while for $^{197}$Au we find the quadrupole contribution resolves the discrepancy between experiment and the simple predictions of the Weissacker-Williams virtual photon method.