Final-state interactions and a comparison of the 3H(p, pp)nn and 3He(p, pp)pn reactions

Abstract

The 3He(p, pp)pn and 3H(p, pp)nn reactions have been studied at an incident proton energy of 20 MeV under identical kinematic conditions. A Monte Carlo simulation technique was employed to generate predictions from the Watson-Migdal theory of final-state interactions which included all experimental and data reduction effects. The 3He(p, pp)pn data are well described by the Watson-Migdal formalism for the p-n final-state interaction both on and off the spectator angles, showing no evidence of an important contribution due to quasi-free scattering. For the tritium data, however, without the inclusion of quasi-free scattering effects a fit could be found only for unrealistically large scattering lengths. The addition of a quasi-free scattering contribution improved the fits, but still did not adequately describe the data. A possible explanation for the discrepancy is discussed.