A new version is proposed for the universal empirical formula, EPAX, which describes fragmentation cross sections in high-energy heavy-ion reactions. The new version, EPAX 3, can be shown to yield cross sections that are in better agreement with expe
rimental data for the most neutron-rich fragments than the previous version. At the same time, the very good agreement of EPAX 2 with data on the neutron-deficient side has been largely maintained. Comparison with measured cross sections show that the bulk of the data is reproduced within a factor of about 2, for cross sections down to the pico-barn range.
The recently claimed observations of non-negligible amounts of 6Li in old halo stars have renewed interest in the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) of 6Li. One important ingredient in the predicted BBN abundance of 6Li is the low-energy 2H(alpha,gamma)6
Li cross section. Up to now, the only available experimental result for this cross section showed an almost constant astrophysical S-factor below 400 keV, contrary to theoretical expectations. We report on a new measurement of the 2H(alpha,gamma)6Li reaction using the break-up of 6Li at 150 A MeV. Even though we cannot separate experimentally the Coulomb contribution from the nuclear one, we find clear evidence for Coulomb-nuclear interference by analyzing the scattering-angular distributions. This is in-line with our theoretical description which indicates a drop of the S_24-factor at low energies as predicted also by most other models. Consequently, we find even lower upper limits for the calculated primordial 6Li abundance than before.
