Fragmentation of $^7$Li Relativistic Nuclei on a Proton into the $^3$H+$^4$He Channel

TL;DR

This study investigates the fragmentation of relativistic $^7$Li nuclei into $^3$H and $^4$He fragments upon interaction with protons, measuring cross sections and momentum distributions to understand nuclear breakup mechanisms.

Contribution

First measurement of $^7$Li fragmentation into $^3$H and $^4$He on protons at 3 GeV/c, providing detailed momentum and cross section data.

Findings

Fragmentation cross section: 8±2 mb.

Average total transverse momentum of fragments: 214±5 MeV/c.

Recoil-proton transverse momentum: 98% of total proton momentum.

Abstract

In a track nuclear photoemulsion exposed to a beamof $^7$Li nuclei accelerated to a momentum of 3 GeV/$c$ per nucleon at the synchrophasotron of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna), 13 events in which $^7$Li nuclei interacting with protons break up into $^3$H and $^4$He fragments were detected among 3730 inelastic-interaction events. For this fragmentation channel, the cross section was found to be $8\pm2$ mb. The average value of the fragment total transverse momentum was $214\pm5$ MeV/$c$. This value exceedsmarkedly the average value of the transverse-momentumtransfer in the coherent dissociation of $^7$Li nuclei on track-emulsion nuclei ($166\pm5$ MeV/$c$). The recoil-proton transverse momentum was on average 98% of the total proton momentum. The longitudinal-momentum distribution of protons was characterized by a variance of 16 MeV/$c$ and a mean value of $37\pm2$ MeV/$c$.