Production of residual nuclei by proton-induced reactions on C, N, O, Mg, AI and Si

Abstract

Cross sections for the production of residual nuclides by p-induced reactions are the basic nuclear quantities for an accurate modelling of the interaction of solar cosmic protons with matter. In a series of irradiation experiments at the cyclotron of the Svedberg Laboratory/University of Uppsala sixteen different target elements were investigated for proton energies up to 100 MeV in order to determine such thin-target excitation functions. Residual nuclides were measured by gamma-spectrometry and, in the case of 10Be and 26Al, by accelerator mass spectrometry. Here, we report results for the light target elements C, N, O, Mg, Al, and Si including also new cross sections for the production of 10Be and 26Al from aluminum for p-energies between 100 MeV and 200 MeV. The latter were derived from targets irradiated earlier at the IPN Orsay. The new experimental data are compared with earlier work and analyzed in the framework of the hybrid model of preequilibrium reactions investigating several options with respect to the choice of nuclear masses including also corrections for shell effects of nuclear masses and level densities.