Interplay of single-particle and collective modes in the ^12C (p, 2p) reaction near 100 MeV

The ^12C (p, 2p) ^11B reaction at Eₚ =98. 7 MeV proton beam energy is analyzed using a rigorous three-particle scattering formalism extended to include the internal excitation of the nuclear core or residual nucleus. The excitation proceeds via the core interaction with any of the external nucleons. We assume the ^11B ground and low-lying excited states 32^- (0. 0 MeV), 52^- (4. 45 MeV), 72^- (6. 74 MeV) and the excited states 12^- (2. 12 MeV), 32^- (5. 02 MeV) to be members of K=32^- and K=12^- rotational bands, respectively. The dynamical core excitation results in a significant cross section for the reaction leading to the 52^- (4. 45 MeV) excited state of ^11B that cannot be populated through the single-particle excitation mechanism. The detailed agreement between the theoretical calculations and data depends on the used optical model parametrizations and the kinematical configuration of the detected nucleons.