A new approach to the production and detection of bound neutron clusters is presented. The technique is based on the breakup of beams of very neutron-rich nuclei and the subsequent detection of the recoiling proton in a liquid scintillator. The method has been tested in the breakup of 11 Li, 14 Be and 15 B beams by a C target. Some 6 events were observed that exhibit the characteristics of a multineutron cluster liberated in the breakup of 14 Be, most probably in the channel 10 Be+ 4 n. The various backgrounds that may mimic such a signal are discussed in detail.

The breakup of 12 Be into 6 He 1 6 He and 4 He 1 8 He has been studied using a 378 MeV 12 Be beam inelastically excited by 12 C and ͑CH 2 ͒ n targets. The measurements indicate that breakup occurs from rotational states in the 10 to 25 MeV excitation energy interval, with spins in the range of 4h to 8h. The inferred moment of inertia is consistent with the cluster decay of an exotic molecular structure in 12 Be, which may be associated with an a-4n-a cluster configuration. [S0031-9007(99)08451-3]

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