Two-neutron transfer analysis of the 16O(18O,16O)18O reaction

Recently a quantitative description of the two-neutron transfer reaction 12C(18O,16O)14C was performed and the measured cross sections were successfully reproduced [M. Cavallaro et al., Phys. Rev. C 88, 054601 (2013)]. This task was accomplished by combining nuclear structure calculations of spectroscopic amplitudes and a full quantum description of the reaction mechanism. Verification of such a theoretical approach to other heavy nuclear systems is mandatory in order to use (18O,16O) reactions to assess pair configurations in nuclear states. In this work we apply this methodology to the 16O(18O,16O)18O reaction at 84 MeV. Experimental angular distributions for the two-neutron transfer to the ground state and 2+ 1 state of 18O were obtained using the MAGNEX spectrometer at INFN-LNS. The roles of one- and two-step processes are analyzed under the exact finite range coupled reaction channel and the second order distorted wave Born approximation.We conclude that the one-step transfer mechanism is dominant in this system.