Multiplicity of charged particles in inelastic interactions of oxygen nuclei with hydrogen at 3.1 A GeV/C

Experimental data on multiplicities of secondary charged particles in interactions of oxygen nuclei in a hydrogen bubble chamber at the incident momentum of 3.1 A GeV/c are presented and discussed. Multiplicity correlations are studied in details and it is shown that the character of these correlations is strongly influenced by the electric charge and baryon number conservation. Topologies and probabilities of different channels of fragmentation are determined for projectile oxygen nuclei. It is established that channels with production of helium nuclei play an important role in the processes of multifragment break-up of oxygen nuclei. Comparison of the experimental data with predictions of the cascadefragmentation-evaporation model has shown that the model provide the qualitative description of the considerable amount of experimental observations.