An Experimental Search for a Stable Dineutron

Abstract

An attempt is made to detect dineutrons ($\delta$) emitted from hypothetical ($p, \delta$) reactions by observing the activity of the end product of ($\delta , p$) reactions. The activity expected, assuming the dineutron to be stable, is calculated from the statistical theory of nuclear reactions and found to be greater than the maximum observed activity by a factor of ${10}^5$. The acceptance of this result as conclusive would indicate that $V_0{a}^2$ for the neutron-neutron interaction cannot be more than 10 percent larger than for the neutron-proton interaction.