COULOMB BREAKUP OF NUCLEI - APPLICATIONS TO ASTROPHYSICS

The Coulomb dissociation process, induced by the intense source of qua si-real photons acting as nuclear particles pass through the held of a heavy nucleus, has attracted a great deal of attention. As a specific application, and as a means of access to the time-reversed radiative- capture reactions, which are of astrophysical interest at stellar ener gies, this process provides several advantages, based on larger cross sections and on the flexibilities of the breakup kinematics. Difficult ies in the analysis arise from possible interference by nuclear intera ctions and final-state effects through multiphoton exchange (postaccel eration), which need careful consideration. A number of theoretical an d experimental investigations that have been performed, since the intr oduction of this novel approach have provided interesting new informat ion, resulting in an improved and detailed understanding of the experi mental conditions, and of the theoretical basis of the method. The pro gress in experiment and theory is reviewed, and various cases of actua l interest and current applications are discussed.