Manifestation of the divergence between antisymmetrized-molecular-dynamics and container pictures of 9Be via 9Be(p,pn)8Be knockout reaction

We propose a new approach to probe the spatial extension of the valence neutron orbital in the 9Be nucleus via the 9Be(p,pn)8Be knockout reaction. This property of the nuclear molecular orbital has not been established in previous experimental studies and divergence exists between the theoretical descriptions of 9Be from different perspectives, i.e., the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics and the container pictures of cluster dynamics. These pictures are represented by two different well-proven microscopic models, the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) and Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-Röpke (THSR) wave functions. The corresponding reduced width amplitudes (RWAs) in the 8Be+n channel are extracted from both the AMD and THSR wave functions, and they are found to describe drastically different valence-nucleon motion, which shows the theoretical ambiguity in describing the π-orbitals in 9Be. Using the RWAs as input, the physical observables of the 9Be(p,pn)8Be knockout reaction are predicted by the distorted-wave impulse approximation (DWIA) framework. The magnitudes of the triple-differential cross sections (TDX) are found to be highly sensitive to the RWA input. It is concluded that the 9Be(p,pn)8Be knockout reaction could provide a feasible probing for the subtle differences between several structure models manifesting through the spatial extension of the π-orbital in the 9Be nucleus.