Investigating the alpha-clustering on the surface of $^{120}$Sn via ($p$,$p\alpha$) reaction and the validity of the factorization approximation

Abstract

The $^{120}$Sn($p$,$p\alpha$)$^{116}$Cd reaction at 392 MeV is investigated with the distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) framework. We show that this reaction is very peripheral mainly because of the strong absorption of $\alpha$ by the reaction residue $^{116}$Cd, and the $\alpha$-clustering on the nuclear surface can be probed clearly. We investigate also the validity of the so-called factorization approximation that has frequently been used so far. It is shown that the kinematics of $\alpha$ in the nuclear interior region is significantly affected by the distortion of $^{116}$Cd, but it has no effect on the reaction observables because of the strong absorption in that region.