Transport Model Simulations of Projectile Fragmentation Reactions at 140 MeV/nucleon

TL;DR

This paper uses transport models to simulate projectile fragmentation reactions at 140 MeV/nucleon, analyzing fragment excitation energies and cross sections, and comparing predictions with experimental data to evaluate model accuracy.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of simulation predictions with experimental measurements, exploring the influence of decay models and efficiency corrections on fragment cross sections.

Findings

Predicted fragment cross sections agree with experimental data within uncertainties.

Model predictions are sensitive to the choice of statistical decay parameters.

Efficiency corrections significantly impact the validation of reaction models.

Abstract

The collisions in four different reaction systems using $^{40,48}$Ca and $^{58,64}$Ni isotope beams and a Be target have been simulated using the Heavy Ion Phase Space Exploration and the Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics models. The present study mainly focuses on the model predictions for the excitation energies of the hot fragments and the cross sections of the final fragments produced in these reactions. The effects of various factors influencing the final fragment cross sections, such as the choice of the statistical decay code and its parameters have been explored. The predicted fragment cross sections are compared to the projectile fragmentation cross sections measured with the A1900 mass separator. At $E/A=140$ MeV, reaction dynamics can significantly modify the detection efficiencies for the fragments and make them different from the efficiencies applied to the measured data reported in the previous work. The effects of efficiency corrections on the validation of event generator codes are discussed in the context of the two models.