Inclusive projectile fragmentation in the spectator model

Abstract

Grazing-angle singles spectra for projectile fragments from nuclear collisions exhibit a broad peak centered near the beam velocity, suggesting that these observed fragments play only a “spectator” role in the reaction. Using only this spectator assumption (but not DWBA), we find that a “prior form” formulation of the reaction leads, via closure, to a 〈 ψ∥ W∥ ψ〉-type estimate of the inclusive spectator spectrum, thus relating it to the reaction cross section for the “participant” with the target. We show explicitly that this expression includes an improved multi-channel version of the Udagawa-Tamura formula for the “breakup-fusion” or incomplete-fusion cross section, and identifies it as the fluctuation part of the participant-target reaction cross section. A Glauber-type estimate of the distorted wave functions which enter clearly shows how the width of the peak in the spectator spectrum arises from the “Fermi motion” within the projectile, as in the simpler Serber model, but is modified by the “overlap geometry” of the collision.