The dissociation of relativistic $^{12}$N nuclei having a momentum of 2 GeV/c per nucleon and undergoing the most peripheral interactions in a track emulsion is studied. The picture of charged topology of product ensembles of relativistic fragments and special features of their angular distributions are presented.
The dissociation features in nuclear track emulsion of $^9$Be, $^{9,10}$C, and $^{12}$N nuclei of 1.2 A GeV energy are presented. The data presented for the nucleus $^9$Be can be considered as evidence that there is a core in its structure in the form of 0$^+$ and 2$^+$ states of the $^8$Be nucleus having roughly equal weights. Events of coherent dissociation $^9$C$rightarrow 3^3$He associated with the rearrangement of the nucleons outside the $alpha$-clustering are identified. A pattern of the charge fragment topology in the dissociation of $^{10}$C and $^{12}$N nuclei is obtained for the first time. Contribution of the unbound nucleus decays to the cascade process $^{10}$C$rightarrow ^9$B$rightarrow ^8$Be is identified.
Production of $alpha$-particle triples in the Hoyle state (HS) in dissociation of ${}^{12}$C nuclei at 3.65 and 0.42 $A$ GeV in nuclear track emulsion is revealed by the invariant mass approach. Contribution of the HS to the dissociation ${}^{12}$C $to$ 3$alpha$ is (11 $pm$ 3) %. Reanalysis of data on coherent dissociation ${}^{16}$O $to$ 4$alpha$ at 3.65 $A$ GeV is revealed the HS contribution of (22 $pm$ 2) %.
Production of ensembles of $alpha$-particle triples associated with the Hoyle state (the second excited state of the ${}^{12}$C nucleus) in peripheral dissociation of relativistic ${}^{12}$C nuclei is studied. Stacks of nuclear track emulsion pellicles exposed to ${}^{12}$C with an energy from hundreds MeV to a few GeV per nucleon serve as the material for studies. The Hoyle state decays are reconstructed via measurement of emission angles of $alpha$ particles with the precision sufficient for identification of the unstable ${}^{8}$Be nucleus. The estimate of the contribution of Hoyles state to the ${}^{12}$C $to$ 3$alpha$ dissociation is 10-15%.
In the context of the search for triples of relativistic $alpha$-particles in the Hoyle state, the analysis of available data on the dissociation of the nuclei ${}^{12}$C, ${}^{16}$O and ${}^{22}$Ne in the nuclear emulsion was carried out. The Hoyle state is identified by the invariant mass calculated from pair angles of expansion in $alpha$-triples in the approximation of the conservation of the momentum per nucleon of the parent nucleus. The contribution of the Hoyle state to the dissociation of ${}^{12}$C $to$ 3$alpha$ is 11%. In the case of the coherent dissociation of ${}^{16}$O $to$ 4$alpha$ it reaches 22% when the portion of the channel ${}^{16}$O $to$ 2${}^{8}$Be is equal to 5%.
Possibilities of the nuclear emulsion technique for the study of the systems of several relativistic fragments produced in the peripheral interactions of relativistic nuclei are discussed. The interactions of the $^{10}$B and $^{9}$Be nuclei in emulsion are taken as an example to show the manifestation of the cluster degrees of freedom in relativistic fragmentation. For the case of the relativistic $^{9}$Be nucleus dissociation it is shown that exact angular measurements play a crucial role in the restoration of the excitation spectrum of the alpha particle fragments. The energy calibration of the angular measurements by the $^{9}$Be nucleus enables one to conclude reliably about the features of internal velocity distributions in more complicated systems of relativistic $alpha$ particles.