Beryllium (boron) clustering quest in relativistic multifragmentation (BECQUEREL Project)

A physical program of irradiation of emulsions in beams of relativistic nuclei named the BECQUEREL Project is reviewed. It is destined to study in detail the processes of relativistic fragmentation of light radioactive and stable nuclei. The expected results would make it possible to answer some topical questions concerning the cluster structure of light nuclei. Owing to the best spatial resolution, the nuclear emulsions would enable one to obtain unique and evident results. The most important irradiations will be performed in the secondary beams of He, Be, B, C, and N radioactive nuclei formed on the basis of JINR Nuclotron beams of stable nuclei. We present results on the charged state topology of relativistic fragmentation of the ¹⁰B nucleus at low energy-momentum transfers as the first step of the research.     

Investigation of clustering in light nuclei by means of relativistic-multifragmentation processes

New results concerning the topology of the fragmentation of relativistic nuclei ⁷Li and ¹⁰B are presented. A program is proposed for studying the cluster structure of stable and radioactive nuclei. The use of emulsions in the investigation of nuclear clustering in the fragmentation of light nuclei at energies are in excess of 1 GeV per nucleon is discussed.     

Electromagnetic dissociation of relativistic 8B nuclei in nuclear track emulsion

Experimental data on fragmentation channels in peripheral interactions of ⁸B nuclei in nuclear track emulsions are presented. A detailed analysis made it possible to justify selections of events of the electromagnetic-dissociation process ⁸B → ⁷Be + p and to estimate its cross section. Events of ¹⁰C peripheral dissociation that were observed in the same exposure are described.     

Muography of Large Natural and Industrial Objects

Physics of Atomic Nuclei -     

Angular distributions in proton-nucleus interactions in emulsion at 800 GeV

Data on angular distributions of heavily ionizing and shower particles in incoherent protonnucleus collisions in emulsion at 800 GeV are reported and discussed in details. Dependence of angular distributions on the mass number of a target nucleus and on the multiplicity of charged particles is investigated. The data presented are systematically compared with results of emulsion experiments at lower energies and with predictions of the Lund Monte Carlo model FRITIOF.     

Multiplicities in84Kr interactions in emulsion at 800–950 MeV/nucleon

Inelastic interactions induced by⁸⁴Kr nuclei at 800–950 MeV/nucleon have been studied using a high angular resolution emulsion detector. Data on multiplicities of the produced particles, projectile and target fragments are shown. Comparisons with cascade calculations have been performed.We thank to Swedish Research Council for Natural Sciences for the financial support. Scanning and measurements performed by E.G. Broomé and V. Kopljar are acknowledged.     

Flow effects in 84Kr induced collisions in emulsion at 0.95 GeV per nucleon

Using emulsion detector the collective flow signals in inelastic interactions of ⁸⁴Kr nuclei with Ag(Br) at 950 MeV/nucleon are studied. A transverse momentum analysis is performed to determine the reaction plane. The bounce-off of spectator fragments is observed. In azimuthal distributions relative to the reaction plane squeeze-out and side-splash of participants are seen. Received: 27 September 1999     

Peripheral interactions of relativistic 14N nuclei with emulsion nuclei

The results of investigation of the dissociation of the 2.86-A-GeV/c ¹⁴N nucleus in an emulsion are presented. The cross sections for various fragmentation channels are given. The invariant approach to analysis of fragmentation is used. The momentum and correlation characteristics of the α particles for the ¹⁴N → 3α + X channel in the laboratory system and c.m.s. of three α particles are examined. The results obtained for the ¹⁴N nucleus are compared with similar data for the ¹²C and ¹⁶O nuclei.     

Features of the 9Be → 2He fragmentation in an emulsion for an energy of 1.2 GeV per nucleon

The results of investigation of the fragmentation of relativistic nuclei ⁹Be in an emulsion, which is accompanied by the formation of two 1.2-A-GeV He fragments, are presented. The angular measurements of the ⁹Be → 2He events are analyzed. The ⁹Be → ⁸Be + n fragmentation channel with the decay of ⁸Be from the ground (0⁺) and first excited (2⁺) states into a pair of α particles appears to be dominant.