Coherent fragmentation of ¹²C nuclei of momentum 4.5 GeV/c per nucleon through the ⁸Be_g.s.+⁴He channel in a nuclear photoemulsion containing lead nuclei

Abstract

A two-particle channel in which an unbound nucleus of ⁸Be in the ground state (⁸Be_g.s.) was one of the fragments was selected among events where ¹²C nuclei of momentum 4.5 GeV/c per nucleon undergo coherent dissociation into three alpha particles. The events in question were detected in a track nuclear photoemulsion containing lead nuclei, which was irradiated at the synchrophasotron of the Laboratory of High Energies at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna). The average transverse momentum of alpha particles produced upon the decay of ⁸Be_g.s. nuclei was 87±6 MeV/c, while that for “single” alpha (α_s) particles was 123±15 MeV/c. The average value of the transverse-momentum transfer in the reaction being considered, Pt(12C), was 223 ± 20 MeV/c. The average value of the cross section for this channel involving Ag and Br target nuclei was 13 ± 4 mb, while the cross section for the reaction on the Pb nucleus was 40 ± 15 mb. The Coulomb dissociation contribution evaluated on the basis of the number of events where the momentum P _t(¹²C) did not exceed 0.1 GeV/c saturated about 20%. In nine events, the measured total transverse energy of the fragments in the reference frame comoving with the decaying carbon nucleus did not exceed 0.45 MeV, which did not contradict the excitation of the participant ¹²C nucleus to the level at 7.65 MeV. The average value of the transverse momentum in those events was 234 ± 25 MeV/c.