SOFT DIPOLE EXCITATIONS IN LI-11

A three-body model of Li-11 is extended to include all interactions in unbound states in the continuum. We use a Green function technique to solve the three-body hamiltonian equation, and study the continuum dipole states produced by electromagnetic excitations of the ground state. The final-state interaction modifies the dipole strength function substantially, making it similar to an independent-particle strength function, but the total strength is enhanced by 50% due to ground-state correlations. The dipole strength is concentrated in a peak just above threshold, and the strength distribution is consistent with the measured beam energy dependence of the Coulomb dissociation cross section. This threshold peak also gives a narrow component in the neutron and the residual nucleus momentum distributions. The angular distributions of the neutrons emitted in Coulomb-induced reactions show a surprising anticorrelation, favoring emission with a large opening angle between the directions of the two neutrons in the rest frame of Li-11.