Excitation functions of the nat-Ta(p,x)178m2Hf and nat-W(p,x)178m2Hf reactions at energies up to 2600 MeV

TL;DR

This study measures the production cross sections of the 178m2Hf isomer from nat-Ta and nat-W targets irradiated with protons up to 2600 MeV, comparing experimental data with various nuclear reaction models.

Contribution

It provides new experimental excitation functions for 178m2Hf production and evaluates the isomer ratio, enhancing understanding of high-energy proton-induced reactions on tantalum and tungsten.

Findings

Measured excitation functions for proton energies 40-2600 MeV.

Compared experimental data with multiple nuclear reaction models.

Estimated the isomer ratio for the nat-Ta(p,x)178m2Hf reaction.

Abstract

Due to potential level of energy intensity 178m2Hf is an extremely interesting isomer. One possible way to produce this isomer is irradiation of nat-Ta or nat-W samples with high energy protons. Irradiation of nat-Ta and nat-W samples performed for other purposes provides an opportunity to study the corresponding reactions. This paper pre-sents the 178m2Hf independent production cross sections for both targets measured by the gamma-ray spectrometry method. The reaction excitation functions have been obtained for the proton energies from 40 up to 2600 MeV. The experimental results were compared with calculations by various versions of the intranuclear cascade model in the well-known codes: ISABEL, Bertini, INCL4.5+ABLA07, PHITS, CASCADE07 and CEM03.02. The isomer ratio for the nat-Ta(p,x)178m2Hf reaction is evaluated on the basis of the available data.