Differential Cross Section Measurements of Two and Three-body Photodisintegration of the Triton at HIγS*

Few nucleon systems like ³H provide a phenomena-rich environment for studying the nuclear Hamiltonian in which multiple-nucleon interactions are important. Observations of discrepancies between data and theory provide hints about the features of the nucleon interactions that are either not accounted for in the calculations or are modeled inadequately in the formalism used to model these systems. These observations provide opportunities to potentially deepen our understanding of these fundamental nuclear systems. However, the lack of kinematically complete three-nucleon data remains a major hurdle in benchmarking the theoretical formalisms that are employed to model these few nucleon systems.

To address this, preparations are underway at the High-Intensity Gamma-Ray Source (HIγS) at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) to perform a kinematically-complete measurement of the tritium photodisintegration cross section. The proposed experiment will measure both two-body and three-body photodisintegration cross sections of tritium at incident photon energies below 30 MeV using the quasi-monoenergetic photon beam at HIγS. The experiment will use a pressurized tritium gas target (200 psi) with thin aluminum windows (0.25 mm) for beam entrance and exit. Outgoing neutrons will be detected using an array of liquid organic scintillators. The gas target will be placed inside a secondary containment system equipped with tritium monitors during the experiment for radiation safety.

This experiment will be carried out by a collaboration of groups from TUNL and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester. The target cells will be fabricated and pressure-tested at TUNL before being sent to LLE for tritium gas diffusion measurements using the tritium gas handling infrastructure at the LLE. This talk presents an update on the preparation and radiation safety infrastructure development for this experiment.