(Studies of target fragmentation in intermediate energy, relativistic and ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions)

Abstract

The work described herein is part of a project involving the study of low energy (< 10 MeV/A), intermediate energy (10--100 MeV/A) and relativistic (> 250 MeV/A) heavy ion reactions. In the low energy regime, we published a monograph on the properties of the heaviest elements and used that publication as a basis for making a set of best'' semi-empirical predictions of heavy element decay properties. The intermediate energy research effort focussed upon the completion of studies already begun and the initiation of a number of new experiments. In our study of a interaction of 21 MeV/nucleon {sup 129}Xe with {sup 197}Au, we compared the characteristics of the observed deep inelastic phenomena with various models of dissipative reactions and found significant discrepancies between observations and predictions. These discrepancies seemed to be caused by an improper treatment of pre-equilibrium in the early stages of the collision. In our study of the relativistic interaction of 400 MeV/nucleon {sup 12}C with {sup 197}Au, we reported the first direct physical measurement of the properties of the spallation residues from a nucleus-nucleus collision. We found the residue energies to be much lower than those predicted by the intranuclear cascade model, indicating some substantial modifications of that model are needed. But, we also found, indications of significant, non-zero values of the residue transverse momentum, a finding that calls into question the interpretation of a number of radiochemical recoil studies of the kinematics of high energy reactions. A program of performing numerical simulations of intermediate and high energy nuclear collisions using the QMD model was initiated.