Study of Nuclear Reactions at High Energies by the Recoil-Nucleus Method

Abstract

An important means of studying the structure of atomic nuclei is supplied by high-energy particles. The wavelength of the particles falls with increasing energy and at energies of approximately 100 MeV becomes smaller than the mean distance between the nucleons in the nucleus, while the time of interaction with the nucleus is shorter than the characteristic nuclear time. These characteristics of high-energy particles enable us to obtain information on nuclear characteristics not accessible to other methods of study. The study of nuclear reactions at high energies has developed with particular intensity in recent years. Important information has been obtained on the radial distribution of the density of nuclear matter [1], on the shell structure of the nucleus [2], and on the association of nucleons in nuclei [3–5].