Backward production of protons in proton-nucleus collisions at low and intermediate energy.

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We study inclusive cross sections for backscattered protons in proton-nucleus collisions at the incident energies of 35--300 MeV. We evaluate the contributions from the two-nucleon cluster reaction as well as from the single scattering mechanism. Realistic Fermi momentum distributions are considered for both reaction mechanisms. It is found that, at 300 MeV, the two-nucleon cluster reaction dominates the inclusive cross section while, below 200 MeV, the two processes are in competition with each other and depend on the observed energy of the backscattered proton. We present the incident energy dependences of the cross sections at fixed energies of the backscattered protons to clarify the reaction mechanisms.