SPALLATION YIELDS FROM HIGH ENERGY PROTON BOMBARDMENT OF HEAVY ELEMENTS

Abstract

The Monte Carlo calculations of McManus and Sharp (unpublished) for the prompt nuclear processes occurring upon bombardment of heavy elements by 400 Mev. protons are combined with a description of the subsequent neutron evaporation to determine spallation cross sections for comparison with experiment. The model employed is a schematic one which suppresses the detailed characteristics of individual nuclei, but gives the over-all behavior to be expected. Many-particle and collective effects such as alpha particle emission and fission are ignored. The computed cross sections are presented in a variety of different graphical forms which illustrate quantitatively the qualitative picture of high energy reactions first given by Serber (1947). The calculations are in general agreement with existing data when fission is not an important effect, but the agreement does not imply a very stringent test of the various features of the model.