Improving proton-induced one-nucleon removal in intranuclear cascade

TL;DR

This paper identifies key nuclear structure factors, like neutron skin and surface energy density, that improve the accuracy of intranuclear cascade models in predicting proton-induced one-nucleon removal cross sections.

Contribution

It introduces a refined shell-model approach that combines neutron skin and surface energy density considerations to enhance model predictions.

Findings

Improved agreement with experimental cross sections for one-proton removal.

Refined treatment enhances predictions for multi-nucleon removal.

Both neutron skin and surface energy density are essential for accuracy.

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that intranuclear-cascade models generally fail to consistently reproduce the cross sections for one-proton and one-neutron removal from stable nuclei by a high-energy proton beam. We use simple shell-model calculations to investigate the reasons of this deficiency. We find that a refined description of the neutron skin and of the energy density in the nuclear surface is crucial for the aforementioned observables, and that neither ingredient is sufficient if taken separately. As a by-product, the predictions for removal of several nucleons are also improved by the refined treatment.