Breakup Reactions of Drip Line Nuclei

The formal theory of breakup reactions is reviewed. The direct breakup mechanism which is formulated within the framework of the post form distorted wave Born approximation is discussed in detail. In this theory, which requires the information about only the ground state wave function of the projectile, the fragment-target interactions are included to all orders while fragment-fragment interaction is treated only in the first order. The general applicability of this theory to describe the breakup of halo nuclei is demonstrated by comparing the calculations with data for total, as well as energy and angle integrated cross sections and momentum distributions of fragments in reactions induced by a number of halo nuclei. We investigate the role played by the pure Coulomb, pure nuclear and the Coulomb-nuclear interference terms. Postacceleration effects in the Coulomb breakup of neutron halo nuclei is also studied.