Production of Energetic Light Fragments in Spallation Reactions
Stepan G. Mashnik, Leslie M. Kerby, Konstantin K. Gudima, Arnold J. Sierk
备注：
4 pages, 4 figures, Proc. International Nuclear Physics Conference INPC 2013, June 2-7, 2013, Florence, Italy, to be published in EPJ Web of Conferences
Different reaction mechanisms contribute to the production of light fragments (LF) from nuclear reactions. Available models cannot accurately predict emission of LF from arbitrary reactions. However, the emission of LF is important for many applications, such as cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets, radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and heavy-ion beams, to name just a few. The cascade-exciton model (CEM) and the Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM), as implemented in the CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03 event generators used in the Los Alamos transport code MCNP6, describe quite well the spectra of fragments with sizes up to 4He across a broad range of target masses and incident energies. However, they do not predict high-energy tails for LF heavier than 4He. The standard versions of CEM and LAQGSM do not account for preequilibrium emission of LF larger than 4He. The aim of our work is to extend the preequilibrium model to include such processes. We do this by including the emission of fragments heavier than 4He at the preequilibrium stage, and using an improved version of the Fermi Break-up model, providing improved agreement with various experimental data.
Fragments productions in spallation reactions are key infrastructure data for various applications. Based on the empirical parameterizations {\sc spacs}, a Bayesian-neural-network (BNN) approach is established to predict the fragment cross sections in the proton induced spallation reactions. A systematic investigation have been performed for the measured proton induced spallation reactions of systems ranging from the intermediate to the heavy nuclei and the incident energy ranging from 168 MeV/u to 1500 MeV/u. By learning the residuals between the experimental measurements and the {\sc spacs} …
The ratio of pairing-energy coefficient to temperature ($a_{p}/T$) of neutron-rich fragments produced in spallation reactions has been investigated by adopting an isobaric yield ratio method deduced in the framework of a modified Fisher model. A series of spallation reactions, 0.5$A$ and 1$A$ GeV $^{208}$Pb + $p$, 1$A$ GeV $^{238}$U + $p$, 0.5$A$ GeV $^{136}$Xe + $d$, 0.2$A$, 0.5$A$ and 1$A$ GeV $^{136}$Xe + $p$, and $^{56}$Fe + $p$ with incident energy ranging from 0.3$A$ to 1.5$A$ GeV, has been analysed. An obvious odd-even staggering is shown in the fragments with small neutron excess ($I\e…
Based on the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) transport model coupled with a phase-space coalescence afterburner, spallation reaction of $p+^{197}Au$ at the incident beam energy of E$_{beam}$= 800 MeV/nucleon is studied. We find that the number of test particles per nucleon has minor effects on the neutron to proton ratio (n/p) of the produced heavier fragments while it affects much on their yields. The external strong magnetic field affects the production of heavier fragments much than the n/p of produced fragments. The n/p of free nucleons is greatly affected by the strong magnetic field, e…
Rules for in-medium complex particle production in nuclear reactions are proposed. These rules have been implemented in two models to simulate nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus reactions around the Fermi energy. Our work emphasizes the effect of randomness in cluster formation, the importance of the nucleonic Fermi motion as well as the role of conservation laws. The concepts of total available phase-space and explored phase-space under constraint imposed by the reaction are clarified. The compatibility of experimental observations with a random clusterization is illustrated in a schematic s…
We investigate the prompt emission of few intermediate-mass fragments in spallation reactions induced by protons and deuterons in the 1 GeV range. Such emission has a minor contribution to the total reaction cross section, but it may overcome evaporation and fission channels in the formation of light nuclides. The role of mean-field dynamics and phase-space fluctuations in these reactions is investigated through the Boltzmann-Langevin transport equation. We found that a process of frustrated fragmentation and re-aggregation is a prominent mechanism of production of IMFs which can not be assimi…
The CEM2k and LAQGSM codes have been recently developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory to simulate nuclear reactions induced by particles and nuclei for a number of applications. We have benchmarked our codes against most available measured data at projectile energies from 10 MeV/A to 800 GeV/A and have compared our results with predictions of other current models used by the nuclear community. Here, we present a brief description of our codes and show illustrative results obtained with CEM2k and LAQGSM for A+p and A+A spallation, fission, and fragmentation reactions measured recently at GS…
The dynamics of high-energy proton-induced spallation reactions on target nuclides of $^{136}$Xe, $^{59}$Ni, $^{56}$Fe, $^{208}$Pb, $^{184}$W, $^{181}$Ta, $^{197}$Au and $^{112}$Cd, are investigated with the quantum molecular dynamics transport model. The production mechanism of light nuclides and fission fragments is thoroughly analyzed. The statistical code GEMINI is employed in conjunction to the model for managing the decay of primary fragments. For the treatment of cluster emission during the preequilibrium stage, a surface coalescence model is implemented into the model. It is found that…
The LAQGSM code has been recently developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory to simulate nuclear reactions for proton radiography applications. We have benchmarked our code against most available measured data both for proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions at incident energies from 10 MeV to 800 GeV and have compared our results with predictions of other current models used by the nuclear community. Here, we present a brief description of our code and show illustrative results obtained with LAQGSM for neutron spectra measured recently by Nakamura's groups for reactions induced by li…
Heavy nuclei bombarded with protons and deuterons in the 1 GeV range have a large probability of undergoing a process of evaporation and fission; less frequently, the prompt emission of few intermediate-mass fragments can also be observed. We employ a recently developed microscopic approach, based on the Boltzmann-Langevin transport equation, to investigate the role of mean-field dynamics and phase-space fluctuations in these reactions. We find that the formation of few IMF's can be confused with asymmetric fission when relying on yield observables, but it can not be assimilated to the statist…
The Bayesian neural network (BNN) method is used to construct a predictive model for fragment prediction of proton induced spallation reactions with the guidance of a simplified EPAX formula. Compared to the experimental data, it is found that the BNN + sEPAX model can reasonably extrapolate with less information compared with BNN method. The BNN + sEPAX method provides a new approach to predict the energy-dependent residual cross sections produced in proton-induced spallation reactions from tens of MeV/u up to several GeV/u.
The ability to describe production of light fragments (LF) is important for many applications, such as cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets (SEUs), radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and heavy-ion beams. The Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) and the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) event generators in the LANL transport code MCNP6, describe quite well the spectra of fragments with sizes up to 4He across a broad range of target masses and incident energies (up to ~ 5 GeV for CEM and up to ~ 1 TeV/A for LAQGSM). However, they do not predict the high-energ…
Isotope production cross sections from the 500 MeV p + 136Xe interactions measured recently at GSI in inverse kinematics have been simulated with MCNP6 using the CEM03.03 event generator. MCNP6 reproduces reasonably well most of the measured cross sections. However, the isotopes with a charge number greater than the charge number on the target by two units is overestimated significantly by CEM03.03. We found also an underestimation for the production of isotopes in the deep spallation region, far from the target-nucleus. Further investigations and further improvement of CEM03.03 with a possibl…
We present the current status of the improved Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) code CEM2k and of the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model code LAQGSM. To describe fission and light-fragment (heavier than He4) production, both CEM2k and LAQGSM have been merged with the GEM2 code of Furihata. We present some results on proton- and deuteron-induced spallation, fission, and fragmentation reactions predicted by these extended versions of CEM2k and LAQGSM. We show that merging CEM2k and LAQGSM with GEM2 allows us to describe many fission and fragmentation reactions in addition to the spalla…
In nuclear reactions induced by hadrons and ions of high energies, nuclei can disintegrate into many fragments during a short time (~100 fm/c). This phenomenon known as nuclear multifragmentation was under intensive investigation last 20 years. It was established that multifragmentation is an universal process taking place in all reactions when the excitation energy transferred to nuclei is high enough, more than 3 MeV per nucleon, independently on the initial dynamical stage of the reactions. Very known compound nucleus decay processes (sequential evaporation and fission), which are usual for…
Neutron star mergers (NSMs) are rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis sites, which eject materials at high velocities, from 0.1c to as high as 0.6c. Thus the r-process nuclei ejected from a NSM event are sufficiently energetic to initiate spallation reactions with the interstellar medium (ISM) particles. With a thick-target model for the propagation of high-speed heavy nuclei in the ISM, we find that spallation reactions may shift the r-process abundance patterns towards solar data, particularly around the low-mass edges of the r-process peaks where neighboring nuclei have very dif…
We present a statistical-model description of fission, in the framework of compound-nucleus decay, which is found to simultaneously reproduce data from both heavy-ion-induced fusion reactions and proton-induced spallation reactions at around 1 GeV. For the spallation reactions, the initial compound-nucleus population is predicted by the Liège Intranuclear Cascade Model. We are able to reproduce experimental fission probabilities and fission-fragment mass distributions in both reactions types with the same parameter sets. However, no unique parameter set was obtained for the fission probability…
One of considered nowadays scenarios of proton - nucleus reaction is spallation. Its motivation is based on experimental final-state observations of one heavy nucleus, a small number of light fragments and numerous individual nucleons. It is theoretically described as two step process involving energy deposition in the target nucleus and subsequent evaporation. Several models, based on different assumptions, have been constructed in order to describe the spallation process. The main subject of this work is description of global average properties of proton induced spallation reactions in wide …
The goal of this research is to enable MCNP6 to produce high-energy light fragments. These energetic light fragments may be emitted by our models through three processes: Fermi breakup, preequilibrium, and coalescence. We explore the emission of light fragments through each of these mechanisms and demonstrate an improved agreement with experimental data achieved by extending precompound models to include emission of fragments heavier than $^4$He.
An improved version of the Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) of nuclear reactions contained in the code CEM2k and the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) are merged with the well-known sequential-binary-decay model GEMINI by Charity. We present some results on proton-induced fragmentation, fission-product yields and on particle spectra predicted by these extended versions of CEM2k and LAQGSM. We show that merging CEM2k and LAQGSM with GEMINI allows us to describe many fission and fragmentation reactions in addition to the spallation and evaporation reactions which are already…
Current r-process models under-produce A<130 nuclei. P-process models either underproduce A<100 and 150<A<165 p-nuclei, or have other limitations. We argue that the puzzles in these two mechanisms can be solved by heavy-ion spallation. Spallation happens in the explosive phase transition from a neutron star to a quark star - the quark-nova. The quark-nova triggers the r-process which creates abundant A>130 nuclei, and spallation fragments these isotopes into A<130 nuclei and all 35 p-nuclei. Our model is universal in relation to a star's age, metallicity, and chemistry.
We review recent results on intermediate mass cluster production in heavy ion collisions at Fermi energy and in spallation reactions. Our studies are based on modern transport theories, employing effective interactions for the nuclear mean-field and incorporating two-body correlations and fluctuations. Namely we will consider the Stochastic Mean Field (SMF) approach and the recently developed Boltzmann-Langevin One Body (BLOB) model. We focus on cluster production emerging from the possible occurrence of low-density mean-field instabilities in heavy ion reactions. Within such a framework, the …
We extend the cascade-exciton model (CEM), and the Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM), event generators of the Monte-Carlo N-particle transport code version 6 (MCNP6), to describe production of energetic light fragments (LF) heavier than 4He from various nuclear reactions induced by particles and nuclei at energies up to about 1 TeV/nucleon. In these models, energetic LF can be produced via Fermi break-up, preequilibrium emission, and coalescence of cascade particles. Initially, we study several variations of the Fermi break-up model and choose the best option for thes…
A brief description of our improvements and refinements that led from the CEM95 version of the Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) code to CEM97 and to CEM2k is given. The increased accuracy and predictive power of the code CEM2k are shown by several examples. To describe fission and light-fragment (heavier than 4He) production, the CEM2k code has been merged with the GEM2 code of Furihata. We present some results on proton-induced fragmentation and fission reactions predicted by this extended version of CEM2k. We show that merging CEM2k with GEM2 allows us to describe many fission and fragmentation r…
Fissioning nuclei and fission fragments, nuclear fragments emerging from energetic collisions, or nuclei probed with various external fields can emit one or more pre-equilibrium neutrons, protons, and potentially other heavier nuclear fragments. I describe a formalism which can be used to evaluate the pre-equilibrium neutron emission probabilities and the excitation energies of the remnant fragments.
Fragmentation reactions induced on light target nuclei by protons and light nuclei of energies around 1 GeV/nucleon and below are studied with the latest Los Alamos Monte Carlo transport code MCNP6 and with its cascade-exciton model (CEM) and Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM) event generators, version 03.03, used as stand-alone codes. Such reactions are involved in different applications, like cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets (SEU's), radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and ion beams, among others; therefore, it is important that MCNP6 simulates…
Fragmentation reactions induced on light and medium nuclei by protons and light nuclei of energies around 1 GeV/nucleon and below are studied with the Los Alamos transport code MCNP6 and with its CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03 event generators. CEM and LAQGSM assume that intermediate-energy fragmentation reactions on light nuclei occur generally in two stages. The first stage is the intranuclear cascade (INC), followed by the second, Fermi breakup disintegration of light excited residual nuclei produced after the INC. CEM and LAQGSM account also for coalescence of light fragments (complex particles)…
Isotope thermometry, widely used to measure the temperature of a hot nuclear system formed in energetic nuclear collisions, is examined in the light of S-matrix approach to the nuclear equation of state of disassembled nuclear matter. Scattering between produced light fragment pairs, hitherto neglected, is seen to have an important bearing on the extraction of system temperature and volume at freeze-out from isotope thermometry. Taking due care of the scattering effects and decay of the primary fragments, a more reliable way to extract the nuclear thermodynamic parameters is suggested by explo…
The neck dynamics in Fermi-energy heavy-ion collisions, to probe the nuclear symmetry energy in the domain of sub-saturation densities, is investigated within an isospin dependent transport model. The single and double ratios of neutron/proton from free nucleons and light clusters (complex particles) in the isotopic reactions are analyzed systematically. Isospin effects of particles produced from the neck fragmentations are explored, which are constrained within the midrapidities ($|y/y_{proj}|<$0.3) and azimuthal angles (70$^{o}\sim$110$^{o}$, 250$^{o}\sim$290$^{o}$) in semiperipheral nuclear…
Using quantum molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the formation of fragments in symmetric reactions between beam energies of E=30AMeV and 600AMeV. After a comparison with existing data we investigate some observables relevant to tackle equilibration: dsigma/dErat, the double differential cross section dsigma/pt.dpz.dpt,... Apart maybe from very energetic E>400AMeV and very central reactions, none of our simulations gives evidence that the system passes through a state of equilibrium. Later, we address the production mechanisms and find that, whatever the energy, nucleons finally ent…
