Intensity interferometry with neutrons from the compound nucleus82Kr
Correlations between neutrons have been studied in the 96 MeV18O +64Ni reaction, yielding the compound nucleus82Kr at 88 MeV excitation energy. The observed anticorrelation at small relative momenta evidences dominance of quantum-statistical interference between identical particles, from which it is possible to deduce an average source lifetimeτ=(1.2±0.1)·10−20 s as an upper limit disregarding possible contributions to the correlation function from the competingnn final-state interaction. Lacking appropriate model calculations at present, it is argued that further refinements in the theoretical treatment of strong interactions in the final state are needed to enable truly quantitative conclusions from small-angle nucleon-nucleon correlations at such large timescales.