Thick-target transmission method for excitation functions of interaction cross sections

TL;DR

The paper introduces the thick-target transmission (T3) method, a simplified approach to measure excitation functions of interaction cross sections without changing beam energy, suitable for radioactive beams, validated through simulation.

Contribution

It presents the T3 method, a novel technique that derives excitation functions from beam attenuation at different target thicknesses, avoiding energy adjustments during experiments.

Findings

Simulation with PHITS code supports the method's validity.

Results reproduce experimental trends despite uncertainties.

Method simplifies cross section measurements for radioactive beams.

Abstract

We propose a method, called as thick-target transmission (T3) method, to obtain an excitation function of interaction cross sections. In an ordinal experiment to measure the excitation function of interaction cross sections by the transmission method, we need to change the beam energy for each cross section. In the T3 method, the excitation function is derived from the beam attenuations measured at the targets of different thicknesses without changing the beam energy. The advantage of the T3 method is the simplicity and availability for radioactive beams. To confirm the availability, we perform a simulation for the 12C+27Al system with the PHITS code instead of actual experiments. Our results have large uncertainties but well reproduce the tendency of the experimental data.