The Production of Light Nuclei by High Energy Proton Bombardment of Medium Weight Elements

Abstract

Several recent papers^1-3 have reported the production of light nuclei such as Be⁷, Li⁸, Na²⁴, and Cl³⁸ by bombardment of medium weight elements with protons of energies up to 340 Mev. On the basis of excitation functions it was concluded that these nuclei may be emitted as a consequence of an inelastic interaction of the incident proton with the target nucleus. Investigations pursued concurrently at Columbia University with 370-Mev protons are in general consistent with these results and have yielded additional information concerning the processes involved in high energy nuclear reactions with medium weight elements. We therefore present herein the following preliminary report on some of the data obtained in these experiments.