STRIPPING REACTION

in nuclear physics, process in which a nucleus, during a grazing collision, absorbs part of the projectile, the remainder continuing on its hyperbolic Coulomb trajectory. An example is the (d, p) stripping reaction involving an aluminum-27 nucleus and a deuteron. The deuteron (consisting of one proton and one neutron) grazes the aluminum nucleus, which captures the neutron to become aluminum-28, and the proton continues on with a velocity comparable to that of the incident deuteron.