Data analysis for the experiment E15190-E14030 at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), currently known as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). This experiment aims to constrain the nuclear equation of state with heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies.
Previously, we put in a cut of
psd > 0.5 & psd < 2.0 & psd_perp > -0.5 & psd_perp < 0.5
.It turns out that this previous cut was too narrow, throwing away neutron data points. To see why, we look at the original data:
Points above
psd > 2.0
roughly correspond to the "appendix" circled above. We thought these are "bad data points". But according to a plot from S. Mouatassim et al. / Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. A 359 (1995) 530-536, they are actually from neutrons that knock out helium-3 or helium-4 from carbon-12:Geant4 simulation verifies this hypothesis too:
So perhaps a better gate would be
psd > 0.5 & psd < 4.0 & psd_perp > -0.7 & psd_perp < 0.7
?