Rise and Fall of the Spin Alignment in Deep-Inelastic Reactions

Both the magnitude and alignment of the transferred angular momentum in the reaction ${}_{}{}^{165}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ho}$+${}_{}{}^{165}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ho}$ have been measured as a function of $Q$ value via continuum $\gamma$-ray multiplicity and anisotropy techniques. Two regimes are observed: A low—$Q$-value regime where the aligned angular momentum component dominates over the random components, and a large—$Q$-value regime where the random components dominate and decrease the spin alignment.