Angular differential and elemental fragmentation cross sections of a $400\,\text{MeV/nucleon}$ $^{16}\text{O}$ beam on a graphite target with the FOOT experiment

TL;DR

This study measures angular differential cross sections for nuclear fragments produced by a 400 MeV/nucleon $^{16}$O beam on graphite, providing valuable data to improve models for particle therapy and space radioprotection.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed angular differential cross section measurements at this energy, with significantly increased statistics and improved analysis techniques over previous data.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of nuclear fragmentation at 400 MeV/nucleon.

Improved accuracy and reduced uncertainties in cross section measurements.

Data supports refinement of nuclear interaction models for medical and space applications.

Abstract

This paper presents the measurements of the angular differential cross sections for the forward production of He, Li, Be, B, C and N nuclei in the fragmentation process of a 400$\text{MeV/nucleon}$ $^{16}\text{O}$ beam interacting with a graphite target. Due to the limited data available in this energy regime, these measurements of nuclear fragmentation cross sections are relevant to improve nuclear interaction models for Particle Therapy and space radioprotection applications. The data analyzed in this paper were collected during a measurement campaign carried out at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research facility in Darmstadt (Germany) by the FOOT collaboration. The results are compared with similar results found in the literature and with a previous FOOT measurement of the same process, using the same setup, from a previous pilot run performed at GSI. The pilot run data, however, had limited statistics and only allowed for the measurement of elemental fragmentation cross sections integrated in the setup acceptance. This data set, with statistics more than 100 times larger compared to the data collected in the previous run, enabled the measurement of angular differential cross sections, fully exploiting the granularity of the FOOT $\Delta \text{E}$-TOF system. Furthermore, a better comprehension of the FOOT apparatus allowed to improve the analysis techniques, leading to a reduction in the final systematic uncertainties.