Charge-Changing Reactions of Secondary Fragments Produced in High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

Charge-changing cross sections have been measured for secondary fragments produced by the interactions of $1.88A$-GeV ${}_{}{}^{56}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Fe}$ and $1.82A$-GeV ${}_{}{}^{40}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ar}$ nuclei in Lucite. The cross sections are found to vary by less than 1.5% between 6 and 120 mm from the primary interaction point and are consistent with values expected from the normal reaction cross sections of primary beams. No correlation between secondary and tertiary path lengths has been observed. The present results do not provide supporting evidence for the existence of anomalons.