A PROPOSAL TO MEASURE THE CROSS SECTION OF THE SPACE STAR IN NEUTRON-DEUTERON BREAKUP IN A RECOIL GEOMETRY SETUP
Nucleon-deuteron (Nd) breakup is an important tool for obtaining a better understanding of three-nucleon (3N) dynamics and for developing meson exchange descriptions of nuclear systems. The kinematics of the nd breakup reaction enable observables to be studied in a variety of exit-channel configurations that show sensitivity to realistic nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential models and three-nucleon force (3NF) models. Rigorous 3N calculations give very good descriptions of most 3N reaction data. However, there are still some serious discrepancies between data and theory. The largest discrepancy observed between theory and data for nd breakup is for the cross section for the space-star configuration. This discrepancy is known as the “Space star Anomaly”. Several experimental groups have obtained results consistent with the “Space Star Anomaly”, but it is important to note that they all used essentially the same experimental setup and so their experimental results are subject to the same systematic errors. We propose to measure the space-star cross-section at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) using an experimental technique that is significantly different from the one used in previous breakup experiments. This technique has been used by a research group from the University of Bonn to measure the neutron-neutron scattering length. There are three possible scenarios for the outcome of this work: 1) the new data are consistent with previous measurements; 2) the new data are not in agreement with previous measurements, but are in agreement with theory; and 3) the new data are not in agreement with either theory or previous measurements. Any one of the three scenarios will provide valuable insight on the Space Star Anomaly.
- Research Organization:
- North Carolina Central Univ., Durham, NC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-05ER41380
- OSTI ID:
- 964993
- Report Number(s):
- ER41380 - Final Report; TRN: US1101726
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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