Polarization of Protons from theD(d, p)TReaction

Abstract

The polarization of protons from the $\mathrm{D}(d, p)\mathrm{T}$ reaction has been measured for eight deuteron energies between 2.1 and 14.1 MeV. For each deuteron energy, observations were made at nine laboratory angles between 10° and 70°. Scattering from helium was used as the polarization analyzer. For energies above 6 MeV, the polarization is positive at all angles with a maximum near 45°. The highest polarization was observed at 12.1 MeV where the peak value is about 0.5. The angular dependence of the polarization was fitted in terms of a sum over associated Legendre functions. To assure a smooth dependence of the coefficients on energy, they were represented by a power series (energy-dependent analysis). A comparison of the present results with measurements of the neutron polarization in the mirror reaction $\mathrm{D}(d, n){\mathrm{He}}^3$ indicates that the proton polarization is larger by a factor of about 1.4.