Pionic fusion study of the halo nucleus 6He, the reaction d+4He→6He+π + at CELSIUS

The halo nucleus 6He has been studied in a pionic fusion experiment at the CELSIUS storage ring facility in Uppsala. The 6He nuclei were produced in reactions with a deuteron beam incident on a 4He jet target 0.9–5.4 MeV above threshold in the center-of-mass frame. The 6He ions were detected in a ΔE-E solid-state detector telescope inserted into the CELSIUS ring. The aim of the experiment was to investigate, in particular, the high-momentum part of the halo wave function by measuring the total and differential cross sections of the reaction d+4He→6He+π+.