Pionic Fusion Study of the 6He Halo

The structure of the halo nucleus 6He has been investigated in a pionic fusion experiment at the CELSIUS storage ring facility in Uppsala. The 4He(d, 6He)π+ reaction was studied 0.6 - 5.0 MeV above threshold in the centre-of-mass frame with a deuteron beam incident on a 4He gas target. The 6He ions were detected in a ΔE - E solid-state detector telescope inserted into the CELSIUS ring. The results for the total and differential cross section are presented and compared to results for the analogue reaction producing the 3.56 MeV analogue state in 6Li. A simple model of the reaction gives results consistent with earlier findings of 6He as having a spatial extent considerably exceeding that of the alpha particle. It is also shown that information about the high momentum part of the halo wave function can be extracted from the results of this pionic fusion measurement