Abstract
Experimental observations of the multifragmentation of relativistic light nuclei by means of emulsions are surveyed. Events that belong to the type of “white stars” and in which the dissociation of relativistic nuclei is not accompanied by the production of mesons and target-nucleus fragments are considered. An almost complete suppression of the binary splitting of nuclei to fragments of charge in excess of two, Z > 2, is a feature peculiar to charge topology in the dissociation of Ne, Mg, Si, and S nuclei. An increase in the degree of nuclear fragmentation manifests itself in the growth of the multiplicity of singly and doubly charged fragments ( Z = 1, 2) as the charge of the unexcited fragmenting-nucleus part (which is the main part) decreases. Features of the production of systems formed by extremely light nuclei α , d , and t are studied in the dissociation of the stable isotopes of Li, Be, B, C, N, and O to charged fragments. Manifestations of 3 He clustering can be observed in “white stars” in the dissociation of neutron-deficient isotopes of Be, B, C, and N.