Delta-Electron Emission in Deep-Inelastic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Abstract

This paper reports calculations of the influence of a reaction time $T>{10}^{\ensuremath{-}21}$ s in deep-inelastic Xe-Pb collisions on the energy spectrum of $\ensuremath{\delta}$ electrons ejected in the same collision. It is shown that the lifetime of the superheavy composite system causes pronounced oscillations of width $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=\frac{h}{T}$ in the electron distribution, which survive the inclusion of multistep excitations and the folding with a lifetime distribution function. This effect may serve as an atomic clock for deep-inelastic collisions.