Relativistic α-particles emitted in Fe-emulsion interactions at 1.7A GeV

Relativistic α-particles have been studied in 423 interactions of Fe in emulsion at 1.7A GeV. Comparisons of the observed angular distribution with that from ¹⁶O-emulsion reactions at 2.1A GeV reveal that more α-particles are observed at large angles in the Fe-emulsion reactions. The α-particles at large angles cannot be explained by fragmentation from a clean-cut spectator. Comparison of the experimental data with moving relativistic Boltzmann distributions shows that a single Boltzmann distribution cannot fit the fragmentation peak and the tail simultaneously. A thermal source (fireball) explaining the tail part of the distribution needs to be formed by a mechanism other than a simple clean-cut participant-spectator process. A large transverse momentum transfer to the spectator before fragmentation may explain the tail.