Dissociation of relativistic 7Li in photoemulsion and structure of 7Li nucleus

Abstract

The dissociation of relativistic 7Li nuclei was studied with the photoemulsion technique. The nuclear photoemulsions have been exposed in the beam of 7Li at the momentum of 3 A GeV/c at the JINR synchrophasotron in Dubna. Along the scanned length 239.76 m of 7Li tracks, 1675 inelastic interactions have been found. For the first time the coherent dissociation of the relativistic 7Li nuclei into the (α + t) channel in the nuclear photoemulsion has been detected. The mean free path of this channel in emulsion is equal to 5.4 m and corresponds to the cross section which is equal to 23 ± 5 mb. Previously in the dissociation of the relativistic 6Li nuclei it was found that the main di-cluster configuration of the ground state of 6Li manifests itself as the main channel of coherent dissociation into α-particle and deuteron. The close values of relative yields and kinematic features of these two-particle dissociation channels of 7Li and 6Li suggest that a similar di-cluster configuration consisting of α-particle core and bound together outer nucleons predominates in the dissociating nuclei at relativistic energies also. The data presented prove the validity of the relativistic nuclei dissociation as an effective complementary method for the study of nuclear structure.