Production Cross Sections of Fragments from Beams of 400–650 MeV per Nucleon9Be,11B,12C,14N,15N,16O,20Ne,22Ne,56Fe, and58Ni Nuclei Interacting in a Liquid Hydrogen Target. II. Isotopic Cross Sections of Fragments

Abstract

We have measured the isotopic cross sections of 130 secondary fragmentation isotopes from 10 different beam nuclei from 9Be to 58Ni that were accelerated to between 400 and 650 MeV nucleon-1 at the SATURNE Accelerator in France in 1993 and 1994. These beam nuclei interacted in a 1.52 g cm-2 thick liquid hydrogen target, and the isotopic fragments were observed. This is the first use of a pure hydrogen target with a thickness approximating the amount of hydrogen traversed by cosmic rays in our Galaxy to measure cross sections. Several of the beam charges such as 9Be,11B,15N, and 22Ne have not had their fragmentation cross sections measured previously. The isotopic cross sections from the 12C,14N,16O,20Ne,56Fe, and 58Ni beam interactions are compared with earlier measurements by our group using a CH2 - C target subtraction technique to determine the hydrogen cross sections. The overall agreement between the new measurements and the earlier measurements using a CH2 - C target subtraction is excellent with a systematic consistency between measurements ~3%-5%. These new isotopic cross sections define the Galactic production of the secondary isotopes 10Be,10B,11B,13C,14N,15N, and 18O as well as Fe and Ni secondary decay isotopes from Cl to Co to a level of precision of ~3%-5%. These cosmic-ray isotopes are important for understanding the nucleosynthesis in the cosmic-ray sources as well as tracing the detailed propagation history of cosmic rays in the Galaxy.