Fast deuteron production in proton-nucleus interactions

Deuteron formation in proton-nucleus reactions due to the coalescence mechanism with final-state interaction between nucleons is discussed in order to establish the kinematical region of the validity of this approach. The experimental data on fast deuteron production in proton-nucleus collisions at bombarding energies above 3 GeV are analyzed. It is shown that most experimental results were obtained for deuteron momenta below the critical limit of the coalescence model. It is discussed to which extent further experimental studies could help to identify contributions from the coalescence mechanism and to get better understanding of the fast deuteron-production process.This article was processed by the author using the LATEX style filepljour2 from Springer-Verlag.