Structure of 15,16 C and phenomenology of the hindered E2 transition in 16C

The three-body model of ¹⁴C +n+n is applied to study the E2 transition in ¹⁶C . The n- ¹⁴C potential is chosen to reproduce the single-particle energies of ¹⁵C . The wave functions of ¹⁶C are obtained as a combination of correlated Gaussians by including the Pauli requirement. It is found that the hindered E2 transition can be accounted for by a polarization charge of about 0.10e while the E2 transition in ¹⁵C requires a little larger charge of 0.16e . The soundness of this result is contrasted to the E2 transitions in ( ¹⁷O , ¹⁸O ) and ( ¹⁷F , ¹⁸Ne ) nuclei. The longitudinal momentum distribution of ¹⁵C fragments from ¹⁶C breakup can be well reproduced.