Researchers from the Institute of Modern Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted a study on the fragmentation of neutron-rich carbon isotopes on light targets at high energies. This research, published in the journal Physical Review C, explores the behavior of carbon isotopes when they collide with carbon and polyethylene targets, providing insights that could have implications for nuclear physics and related fields.
The study involved bombarding carbon and polyethylene targets with beams of neutron-rich carbon-14 and carbon-16 ions at an energy level of 27.5 MeV per nucleon. The researchers measured the energy and angular distributions of the resulting fragments. To ensure accuracy, they used an extended E-P plot method to exclude background events caused by the carbon content in the polyethylene target.
The experimental data was then systematically analyzed using the HIPSE-SIMON dynamic model. The comparison between the experimental results and the model’s predictions revealed some discrepancies. For the carbon target, the model overestimated the yields of fragments near the projectile and the energy phase space for fragments far from the projectile. This suggests that the interaction profile adopted in the model may need fine-tuning. However, for reactions with the deuteron target, the model’s calculations were found to reasonably reproduce the experimental data.
The researchers also discussed the implications of their findings on the fragmentation mechanism and its impact on the validity of the invariant mass method. This method is frequently used to reconstruct the clustering resonant structures in light nuclei. The study highlights the importance of understanding the fragmentation process in the Fermi-energy domain, which is crucial for both nuclear physics and interdisciplinary fields.
This research provides valuable insights into the behavior of neutron-rich carbon isotopes under high-energy collisions, which could have practical applications in the energy sector, particularly in nuclear energy research and development. Understanding these processes can contribute to the advancement of nuclear technologies and the optimization of nuclear reactions for energy production.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.