Investigation of the quasi-free domain in deuteron-deuteron break-up using spin observables

Precision measurements of vector and tensor analyzing powers of the ²H(d, dp)n break-up process for configurations in the vicinity of the quasi-free scattering regime with the neutron as spectator are presented. These measurements are performed with a polarized deuteron-beam with an energy of 65MeV/nucleon impinging on a liquid-deuterium target. The experiment was conducted at the AGOR facility at KVI using the BINA 4π-detection system. Events for which the final-state deuteron and proton are coplanar have been analyzed and the data have been sorted for various momenta of the missing neutron. In the limit of vanishing neutron momentum and at large deuteron-proton momentum transfer, the data agree well with the measured and theoretically predicted spin observables of the elastic deuteron-proton scattering process. The agreement deteriorates rapidly with increasing neutron momentum and/or decreasing momentum transfer from the deuteron beam to the outgoing proton. This study reveals the presence of a significant contribution of final-state interactions even at very small neutron momenta.