A correlated background in invariant mass spectra of three-body systems Original Research Article

An analytical approach with Yukawa type three-body wave functions is used to describe break-up reactions of three-body systems in the sudden approximation. The model is applied to the two-neutron halo nuclei 11Li, 6He and correlations in the relative energy distributions of the break-up fragments are found. Since no final state interactions are included in the model the derived energy distributions should be present in experimental invariant mass spectra as a background, on which possible resonances will be superposed. Interesting low energy features are found for the total excitation energy of 11Li and also for the relative energy distributions in the binary subsystems of 11Li and 6He.