Role of the Nuclear and Electromagnetic Interactions in the Coherent Dissociation of the Relativistic $^7$Li Nucleus into the $^3$H + $^4$He Channel

TL;DR

This study measures the differential and total cross sections for the coherent dissociation of relativistic $^7$Li nuclei into $^3$H and $^4$He, highlighting the roles of nuclear diffraction and Coulomb interactions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of cross sections and analyzes the nuclear and electromagnetic contributions to the dissociation process.

Findings

Total cross section measured as (31±4) mb.

Nuclear diffraction contributes approximately 40.7 mb.

Coulomb dissociation contributes approximately 4 mb.

Abstract

The differential cross section in the transverse momentum $Q$ and a total cross section of $(31\pm4)$ mb for the coherent dissociation of a 3-A-GeV/$c$ $^7$Li nucleus through the $^3$H$+^4$He channel have been measured on emulsion nuclei. The observed $Q$ dependence of the cross section is explained by the predominant supposition of the nuclear diffraction patterns on light (C, N, O) and heavy (Br, Ag) emulsion nuclei. The contributions to the cross section from nuclear diffraction ($Q\le400$ MeV/$c$) and Coulomb $(Q\le50$ MeV/$c$) dissociations are calculated to be 40.7 and 4 mb, respectively.