  We study dynamical effects in proton breakup from a weakly bound state in an
exotic nucleus on a heavy target. The Coulomb interactions between the proton
and the core and the proton and the target are treated to all orders, including
also the full multipole expansion of the Coulomb potential. The dynamics of
proton nuclear and Coulomb breakup is compared to that of an equiva- lent
neutron of larger binding energy in order to elucidate the differences with the
well understood neutron breakup mechanism. A number of experimentally
measurable observables such as parallel momentum distributions, proton angular
distributions and total breakup cross sections are calculated. With respect to
nuclear breakup it is found that a proton behaves exactly as a neutron of
larger binding energy. The extra 'effective energy' is due to the combined
core-target Coulomb barrier. In Coulomb breakup we distinguish the effect of
the core-target Coulomb potential (called recoil effect), with respect to which
the proton behaves again as a more bound neutron, from the direct proton-target
Coulomb potential. The latter gives cross sections about an order of magnitude
larger than the recoil term. The two effects give rise to complicated
interferences in the parallel momentum distributions. They are instead easily
separable in the proton angular distributions which are therefore suggested as
a very useful observable for future experimental studies.
