Isotopic Production Cross Sections in Proton-$^{12}$C Interactions for Energies from 10 MeV/N to 100 GeV/N

TL;DR

This paper develops an analytical model for proton-$^{12}$C cross sections across a wide energy range, aiding in space radiation and cancer therapy applications by accurately predicting isotopic production.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new analytical formula for proton-$^{12}$C cross sections based on experimental data and optical models, covering energies from 10 MeV/n to 100 GeV/n.

Findings

Accurate formula for p-$^{12}$C absorption cross section over wide energy range.

Model effectively predicts isotopic production in space radiation and therapy.

Validated against experimental data, showing high accuracy.

Abstract

Proton interactions with $^{12}$C nuclei are a frequent nuclear interaction leading to secondary radiation in tissues for space radiation and cancer therapy with protons or $^{12}$C beams. The fragmentation of $^{12}$C by protons produces a large number of heavy ion (A>4) target or projectile fragments often with high ionization density. Here we develop an analytical model of energy dependent proton-$^{12}$C cross sections for isotopic nuclei production. Using experimental data and a 2nd order optical model an accurate formula for the p-$^{12}$C absorption cross section from <10 MeV/n to >10 GeV/N is obtained. The energy dependence of the elemental and isotopic cross sections is modeled as multiplicities scaled to absorption cross section with average isotopic fractions estimated from experimental data. We show that this approach results in an accurate analytic formula model over the full energy range in Hadron therapy and space radiation protection studies.