Dissociation of 8He into 6He + n + X at 240 MeV/u

Abstract

Extremely neutron-rich nuclei exhibit a number of interesting features of which the most well-known is the neutron halo phenomenon found in 11Li. See e.g. ref. [1] for a recent review. A much less investigated nucleus is 8He, although it is the nucleus with the highest A/Z-ratio that is still stable against particle emission. In the first experiment where evidence for an anomalously large matter radius in 11Li was seen [2], similar effects were also found in 6He and 8He. The extended neutron distribution has previously mainly been probed in dissociation experiments [3] at 800 MeV/u. We present here further information on reactions involving 8He.