Determination of the Cross Sections for the Production of Fragments from Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Interactions. Part II: Parametric Fits

Abstract

Measurements of the partial charge-changing cross sections for the fragmentation of relativistic iron, lanthanum, holmium, and gold nuclei of several different energies incident on targets of polyethylene, carbon, aluminum, and copper have been reported in an accompanying paper. This paper describes the systematics of the variations of these cross sections with energy, projectile, target, and fragment. We have been able to generate a seven-parameter global fit to 795 measured cross sections for the heavy targets which fits the data with a standard deviation of 7%. We have also generated a similar global fit to 303 measured cross sections for a hydrogen target which fits the data with a standard deviation of 10%. These representations imply that the hypothesis of limiting fragmentation is only accurate to some 20–30 %. Weak factorization can apply, but fits that are marginally better, and more physically plausible, can be obtained without factorization. We have identified, and discussed, a number of caveats to the applicability of these fits outside, and inside, the range of energies and masses covered. Excessively large cross sections for the loss of a single proton from the projectile nuclei suggest electromagnetic dissociation. The cross sections for fragments that experience large charge changes appear to become independent of the size of the charge change. Very heavy projectiles have a significant probability of experiencing fission.