An Enhancement of Formation of Unstable 8Be Nucleus with the Growth of α-Particle Multiplicity in Fragmentation of Relativistic Nuclei

In this paper, the correlation between the formation of the unstable 8Be nucleus and accompanying α particles in the fragmentation of relativistic 16О, 22Ne, 28Si, and 197Au nuclei in a nuclear track emulsion is investigated. The 8Be decays are identified in a wide energy range by invariant masses calculated from 2α-pair opening angles. The adopted approximations are verified by data on fragmentation of 16O nuclei in a hydrogen bubble chamber in a magnetic field. An increase in the 8Be contribution to the dissociation with the growth of α-particle multiplicity is found.