We present the results of the study of interaction of the relativistic 6 Li nucleus with the momentum 4.5 GeV/c per nucleon with the photoemulsion. Yields of the 1 H ( 3 He) and 2 H ( 4 He) isotopes due to the fragmentation of 6 Li are found to be almost equal. Cross sections for the charge exchange and pickup reactions are found to be σ exch = 9 ± 2 mb. The distributions of the fragment transverse momenta projected onto the emulsion plane are used to obtain the nucleon Fermi momentum of 6 Li, PF , this value being equal to 129 ± 8 MeV/c. The high momentum component in the transverse momentum distributions of 3 He and 4 He isotopes is observed.

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Unique capabilities of emulsion technique are considered as applied to the study of multifragmentation of light stable and radioactive nuclei in peripheral interactions at beam energy of few GeV per nucleon. The importance of this research for the physics of few body nuclear systems and the related problems of nucleosynthesis is noted. New results on dissociation of 7 Be and 22 Ne in very peripheral interactions with emulsion nuclei are presented as an illustration.

In the present paper, experimental observations of the multifragmentation processes of light relativistic nuclei carried out by means of emulsions are reviewed. Events of the type of "white" stars in which the dissociation of relativistic nuclei is not accompanied by the production of mesons and the target-nucleus fragments are considered.A distinctive feature of the charge topology in the dissociation of the Ne, Mg, Si, and S nuclei is an almost total suppression of the binary splitting of nuclei to fragments with charges higher than 2. The growth of the nuclear fragmentation degree is revealed in an increase in the multiplicity of singly and doubly charged fragments with decreasing charge of the non-excited part of the fragmenting nucleus.The processes of dissociation of stable Li, Be, B, C, N, and O isotopes to charged fragments were used to study special features of the formation of systems consisting of the lightest α, d, and t nuclei. Clustering in form of the 3 He nucleus can be detected in "white" stars via the dissociation of neutron-deficient Be, B, C, and N isotopes.