Electromagnetic Dissociation as a Tool for Nuclear Structure and Astrophysics

Coulomb dissociation is an especially simple and important reaction mechanism. Since the perturbation due to the electric field of the nucleus is exactly known, firm conclusions can be drawn from such measurements. Electromagnetic matrix elements and astrophysical S-factors for radiative capture processes can be extracted from experiments. We describe the basic theory, new results concerning higher order effects in the dissociation of neutron halo nuclei, and briefly review the experimental results obtained up to now. Some new applications of Coulomb dissociation for nuclear astrophysics and nuclear structure physics are discussed.