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

Recently a quantitative description of the two-neutron transfer reaction C-12(O-18, O-16)C-14 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 (O-18, O-16) reactions to assess pair configurations in nuclear states. In this work we apply this methodology to the O-16(O-18, O-16)O-18 reaction at 84 MeV. Experimental angular distributions for the two-neutron transfer to the ground state and 2(1)(+) state of O-18 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.