Dynamics of Three-Nucleon System Studied in Deuteron–Proton Breakup Experiments

Systems composed of three nucleons have been a subject of precise experimental studies for many years. Recently, the database of observables for the deuteron breakup in collision with protons has been significantly extended at intermediate energies. In this region the comparison with exact theoretical calculations is possible, while the sensitivity to various aspects of the interaction, in particular to the subtle effects of the dynamics beyond the pairwise nucleon–nucleon force, is significant. The Coulomb interaction and relativistic effects show also their influence on the observables of the breakup reaction. All these effects vary with energy and appear with different strength in certain observables and phase-space regions, which calls for systematic investigations of a possibly rich set of observables determined in a wide range of energies. Moreover, a systematic comparison with theoretical predictions performed in coordinates related to the system dynamics in a possibly direct way is of importance. The examples of existing experimental data for the breakup reaction are briefly presented and the amenability of a set of invariant coordinates for that type of analysis is discussed. (author)