An investigation of projectile helium fragments in high-energy nucleus–nucleus interactions

Abstract

A detailed study on the multiplicity distribution of helium (He) fragments emitted in projectile fragmentation of 22Ne, 28Si, and 32S projectiles on interactions with H, CNO, and AgBr targets in a nuclear emulsion track detector has been presented at an incident momentum of (4.1–4.5) AGeV/c. The percentage of events with He fragments increases with increase in projectile mass for all three targets. Studies of multiplicity moments, dispersion of multiplicity distribution, and the investigation of dynamical fluctuations of the projectile He fragments have also been carried out.