Experimental Evidence of a Variant Neutron Spectrum from the T(t,2n)α Reaction at Center-of-Mass Energies in the Range of 16–50 keV

Abstract

Full calculations of six-nucleon reactions with a three-body final state have been elusive and a long-standing issue. We present neutron spectra from the T(t,2n)α (TT) reaction measured in inertial confinement fusion experiments at the OMEGA laser facility at ion temperatures from 4 to 18 keV, corresponding to center-of-mass energies (E[subscript c.m.]) from 16 to 50 keV. A clear difference in the shape of the TT-neutron spectrum is observed between the two E[subscript c.m.], with the ⁵He ground state resonant peak at 8.6 MeV being significantly stronger at the higher than at the lower energy. The data provide the first conclusive evidence of a variant TT-neutron spectrum in this E[subscript c.m.] range. In contrast to earlier available data, this indicates a reaction mechanism that must involve resonances and/or higher angular momenta than L=0. This finding provides an important experimental constraint on theoretical efforts that explore this and complementary six-nucleon systems, such as the solar ³He(³He,2p)α reaction.