The results of investigations of the dissociation of a $^{14}$N nucleus of momentum 2.86~A~GeV/c in photo-emulsion are presented. The main characteristics of these reactions, that is the cross sections for various fragmentation channels, are given. The fragmentation was analyzed by means of an invariant approach. The momentum and correlation characteristics of $alpha$ particles for the $^{14}$N$to3alpha$+X channel in the laboratory system and the rest systems of 3$alpha$ particles were considered. The results obtained for the $^{14}$N nucleus are compared with similar data for the $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O nuclei.
The technique of nuclear track emulsions is used to explore the fragmentation of light relativistic nuclei down to the most peripheral interactions - nuclear white stars. A complete pattern of therelativistic dissociation of a $^8$B nucleus with target fragment accompaniment is presented. Relativistic dissociation $^{9}$Be$to2alpha$ is explored using significant statistics and a relative contribution of $^{8}$Be decays from 0$^+$ and 2$^+$ states is established. Target fragment accompaniments are shown for relativistic fragmentation $^{14}$N$to$3He+H and $^{22}$Ne$to$5He. The leading role of the electromagnetic dissociation on heavy nuclei with respect to break-ups on target protons is demonstrated in all these cases. It is possible to conclude that the peripheral dissociation of relativistic nuclei in nuclear track emulsion is a unique tool to study many-body systems composed of lightest nuclei and nucleons in the energy scale relevant for nuclear astrophysics.
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.
Progress in the study of the peripheral nuclear interactions in $^{14}N$ dissociation at $2.1A GeV$ in nuclear emulsion is outlined. The leading role of the multiple fragmentations in the most peripheral nucleus interactions is discussed. The production of unusual states, for which a regrouping of nucleons beyond the $alpha$-particle clustering is needed, is identified for this channel.
indent First results of the exposure of nuclear track emulsions in a secondary beam enriched by $^9$C nuclei at energy of 1.2 A GeV are described. The presented statistics corresponds to the most peripheral $^9$C interactions. For the first time a dissociation $^9$C $to3^3$He not accompanied by target fragments and mesons is identified.par
Experimental results on peripheral fragmentation of relativistic $^{11}$B nuclei are presented. In the experiment the emulsions exposured to $^{11}$B beam with momentum 2.75 A GeV/c at the JINR Nuclotron are used. The relative probability of various fragmentation channels for nucleus breakups (class A) and more violent peripheral interactions (class B) have been determined. For classes under investigations the sum of the fragment charges in narrow forward cone is equal to the projectile charge, but in the events of class A there are no secondary particles and in the events of class B there are. In both classes the main channels is $^{11}$B$to$2He+X: 62% and 50%, corresponding. The main channel $^{11}$B$to$2(Z$_{fr}$=2)+(Z$_{fr}$=1) was investigated in details. Momentum measurements of single-charged fragments have been done to determine number of p, d and t in the channel. This way it was found that the ratio N$_{p}$ : N$_{d}$ : N$_{t}$ is about 1:1:1 for $^{11}$B nuclei dissociation and about 15:5:1 for peripheral interactions of $^{11}$B nuclei.