Shell structure and few-nucleon removal in intranuclear cascade

TL;DR

This paper investigates why intranuclear-cascade models overestimate one-proton removal cross sections in heavy nuclei, highlighting the importance of accurately modeling neutron skin and surface energy density.

Contribution

It demonstrates that incorporating shell-model insights into neutron skin and surface energy density improves the accuracy of intranuclear-cascade predictions.

Findings

Correct neutron skin modeling is crucial for accurate predictions.

Surface energy density significantly affects removal cross sections.

Separate modeling of these factors is insufficient for accuracy.

Abstract

It is well known that intranuclear-cascade models generally overestimate the cross sections for one-proton removal from heavy, stable nuclei by a high-energy proton beam, but they yield reasonable predictions for one-neutron removal from the same nuclei and for one-nucleon removal from light targets. We use simple shell-model calculations to investigate the reasons of this deficiency. We find that a correct description of the neutron skin and of the energy density in the nuclear surface is crucial for the aforementioned observables. Neither ingredient is sufficient if taken separately.