Neutron decay of excited nuclear states in heavy ion collisions

The neutron decay of excited states of ${}_{}{}^7{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ and ${}_{}{}^8{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ has been investigated in the ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ag}$ reaction at E/A=35 MeV. Specifically, the production of the 2.255 MeV unbound state in ${}_{}{}^8{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ and the 7.456 MeV unbound state in ${}_{}{}^7{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ have been measured. Comparison of the production of those two states to that of previously measured lower-lying excited states indicates a nuclear temperature of 3.0(4) MeV. The fraction of the ${}_{}{}^7{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ and ${}_{}{}^6{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ nuclei from the neutron decay of these states is 6(2)% and 4(1)%, respectively, which is significant in that it can resolve some of the discrepancies between recent nuclear temperature measurements.