An enhancement of formation of unstable $^{8}$Be nucleus with the growth of $\alpha$-particle multiplicity in fragmentation of relativistic nuclei

TL;DR

This study investigates how the formation of the unstable $^{8}$Be nucleus correlates with the number of alpha particles produced during the fragmentation of various relativistic nuclei, revealing an increase in $^{8}$Be formation with more alpha particles.

Contribution

It provides new experimental evidence linking $^{8}$Be formation to alpha-particle multiplicity in relativistic nuclear fragmentation.

Findings

$^{8}$Be formation increases with alpha-particle multiplicity.

Correlation between $^{8}$Be and alpha particles confirmed across different nuclei.

Invariant mass analysis effectively identifies $^{8}$Be decays.

Abstract

In this paper, the correlation between the formation of the unstable $^{8}$Be nucleus and accompanying $\alpha$ particles in the fragmentation of relativistic $^{16}$O, $^{22}$Ne, $^{28}$Si, and $^{197}$Au nuclei in a nuclear track emulsion is investigated. The $^{8}$Be decays are identified in a wide energy range by invariant masses calculated from 2$\alpha$-pair opening angles. The adopted approximations are verified by data on fragmentation of $^{16}$O nuclei in a hydrogen bubble chamber in a magnetic field. An increase in the $^{8}$Be contribution to the dissociation with the growth of $\alpha$-particle multiplicity is found.