Final State Interactions in the Reaction T(3He,4He)np

Abstract

A triple correlation cross section was measured for the reaction T(3He,4He)np in a complete experiment at a 3He bombarding energy of 1.5 MeV. The Watson–Migdal and Phillips, Griffy, and Biedenharn (PGB) final state interaction theories are compared in the analysis of the experimental data. The Watson–Migdal theory gives a good description of both the 5He ground state and singlet n–p cross section enhancements. One form of the PGB theory gives a prediction of the singlet n–p enhancement which is indistinguishable from the Watson–Migdal prediction in this experiment. The measured cross section was found to be dominated by direct statistical breakup and sequential decay through a virtual singlet n–p state and the ground state of 5He. A singlet n–p scattering length of [Formula: see text] was determined from the analysis of the three-body data. The reaction T(T,4He)2n is similar to the reaction T(3He,4He)np. Consequently using a complete experimental technique to estimate the anns from T(T,4He)2n would lead to similar error estimates, i.e. [Formula: see text].