Production of Tritons in High-Energy Deuteron-Deuteron Collisions

The differential cross section for the process $d+d\to {\mathrm{H}}^3+p$ has been measured at six angles extending from 20° to 85° in the center-of-mass system. Deuterons of 190 Mev from the Berkeley 184-inch synchrocyclotron were used. A coincidence counting system, consisting of scintillation counters for both particles, was employed. Time of flight and range of the particles were made use of, both in identifying the process and in discriminating against background. The resulting cross section is highly peaked in the forward direction. The behavior is explained qualitatively by a theoretical calculation based on an extension of the stripping mechanism first proposed by Serber. The total cross section for the reaction is estimated to be 4.1 millibarns.