Search for a narrow state at 23.9 MeV in 4He in the 3H + p channel

Abstract Some previous polarization and asymmetry measurements in the 2 H(d, n) and 2 H(d, p) reactions, when initiated with either unpolarized or polarized deuterons, have shown an anomaly in the excitation curves near E d ≈ 100 keV. A state at an excitation energy of 23.9 MeV in 4 He was proposed to account for this anomaly. In the present work, a search for this state has been made by measuring 3 H+p elastic scattering in a proton energy range centered at about 5.45 MeV. The measurements were made using both an unpolarized as well as a polarized proton beam incident on a very thin ( ΔE ≈ 5 keV) titanium-tritium target. No evidence for this state was found.