Imaging the Decay of 8He

The feasibility of the β decay study of 8He with the use of a time projection chamber has been investigated. It is shown that β-delayed neutron emission branches of 8He can be identified by registration of tracks of the recoiling 7Li nuclei. Evidence for neutron emission from a highly excited 8Li state was obtained. New possibilities to study β-decay of 8He into the α + t + n continuum are demonstrated by showing that the full kinematics of such events can be reconstructed. Observed correlations will provide new insight into the mechanism of this decay process. Planned developments of the detection setup are discussed. (author)