The $^{6}$H states studied in the $d(^8\text{He},\alpha)$ reaction and evidence of extremely correlated character of the $^{5}$H ground state

Abstract

The extremely neutron-rich system $^{6}$H was studied in the direct $^2\text{H}(^8\text{He},{^4\text{He}})^{6}$H transfer reaction with a 26 $A$MeV secondary $^{8}$He beam. The measured missing mass spectrum shows a resonant state in $^{6}$H at $6.8(3)$ MeV relative to the $^3$H+$3n$ threshold. There is also some evidence of a resonant state at $4.5(3)$ MeV which is a realistic candidate for the $^{6}$H ground state (g.s.). The population cross section of the presumably $p$-wave states in the energy range from 4 to 8 MeV is $d\sigma/d\Omega_{\text{c.m.}} \sim 190$$\mu$b/sr in the angular range $5^{\circ}<\theta_{\text{c.m.}}<16^{\circ}$. The obtained missing mass spectrum is free of the $^{6}$H events below 3.5 MeV ($d\sigma/d\Omega_{\text{c.m.}} \lesssim 3$$\mu$b/sr in the angular range $5^{\circ}<\theta_{\text{c.m.}}<20^{\circ}$), which indicates that the value of 4.5 MeV is the lower limit of the possible $^{6}$H g.s. location. The obtained results confirm that the decay mechanism of the $^{7}$H g.s. (located at 2.2 MeV above the $^{3}$H+$4n$ threshold) is the ``true'' (or simultaneous) $4n$ emission. The resonance energy profiles and the momentum distributions of the sequential $^{6}$H$\,\rightarrow \, ^5$H(g.s.)+$n\, \rightarrow \, ^3$H+$3n$ decay fragments were analyzed by the theoretically-updated direct four-body-decay and sequential-emission mechanisms. The measured momentum distributions of the $^{3}$H fragments in the $^{6}$H rest frame indicate a very strong ``dineutron-type'' correlations in the $^{5}$H ground state decay