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

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/$c$.