The extremely neutron-rich system $^{6}$H was studied in the direct $^2text{H}(^8text{He},{^4text{He}})^{6}$H transfer reaction with a 26 $A$ MeV secondary $^{8}$He beam. The measured missing mass spectrum shows a broad bump at $sim 4-8$ MeV energy relative to the $^3$H+$3n$ decay threshold. This bump can be interpreted as a broad resonant state in $^{6}$H at $6.8(5)$ MeV. The population cross section of such a presumably $p$-wave state (or may be few overlapping states) in the energy range from 4 to 8 MeV is $dsigma/dOmega_{text{c.m.}} simeq 190(40)$ $mu$b/sr in the angular range $5^{circ}<theta_{text{c.m.}}<16^{circ}$. The obtained missing mass spectrum is practically free of the $^{6}$H events below 3.5 MeV ($dsigma/dOmega_{text{c.m.}} lesssim 5$ $mu$b/sr in the same angular range). The steep rise of the $^{6}$H missing mass spectrum at $sim 3$ MeV allows to derive the lower limit for the possible resonant state energy in $^{6}$H of $4.5(3)$ MeV. According to the paring energy estimates, such a $4.5(3)$ MeV resonance is a realistic candidate for the $^{6}$H ground state (g.s.). The obtained results confirm that the decay mechanism of the $^{7}$H g.s. (located at 2.2 MeV above the $^{3}$H+$4n$ threshold) is the true (or simultaneous) $4n$ emission. The resonance energy profiles and the momentum distributions of fragments of the sequential $^{6}$H$ ,rightarrow , ^5$H(g.s.)+$n, rightarrow , ^3$H+$3n$ decay were analyzed by the theoretically-updated direct four-body-decay and sequential-emission mechanisms. The measured momentum distributions of the $^{3}$H fragments in the $^{6}$H rest frame indicate very strong dineutron-type correlations in the $^{5}$H ground state decay.
Download