In atomic nuclei, high-energy collisions cause the production of neutron and proton clusters and the emission of strong ions. When two helium-4 (4He) nuclei collide, a beryllium-8 nucleus is formed. If a third 4He particle hits this nucleus, the 4He particles can form a regular cluster, causing the excited form of carbon-12 (12C). The stability of the collision products is known to depend on the aggregation of neutrons and protons during high-energy collisions.
Dynamics of High-Energy Collisions
However, it is still unclear how clustering affects the dynamics and outcomes of high-energy collisions. Catalin Frosin of the University of Florence and her team have published experimental results showing how reaction products evolve during such contact.
The findings are consistent with models that claim that higher impact energies can promote clustering and lead to the emission of lighter, more energetic particles.
The experiments use neon-12 and sulfur-20 pulsed lasers to detonate 32C objects. Using FAZIA, a detector created to study charged particles close to the Fermi energy, Frosin and colleagues identified the resulting fragments. To predict nucleon interactions and unstable product decays, the scientists ran both cluster-correlated and non-cluster-correlated simulations. Consistent with the experimental results, models that included aggregation produced particles with higher energy. According to the researchers, the conservation of energy and momentum in the early, dynamic stage of nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-cluster collisions was the cause of this effect.
The results show how accurately FAZIA was able to extract data on the properties of nuclear fragments. Previous studies elsewhere had focused only on carbon+carbon interactions, according to the researchers. This work offers more possibilities for interpreting fragmentation mechanisms by extending them to heavier reactants.
Source: physics.aps.org/articles/v16/s50
Günceleme: 29/04/2023 15:44