Challenge of nuclear transmutation in heavy-ion colliders

TL;DR

This paper analyzes nuclear transmutation in heavy-ion colliders, showing hadronic interactions dominate for light nuclei at LHC energies, and providing cross sections and distributions relevant for experimental contamination assessments.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed calculations of secondary nuclear production in light-ion collisions at LHC and NICA energies, highlighting the dominance of hadronic interactions for light nuclei.

Findings

Hadronic interactions dominate for light nuclei at LHC energies.

Calculated cross sections and momentum distributions for secondary nuclei.

Secondary nuclei production impacts contamination in experimental data.

Abstract

We investigate the production of secondary nuclei in the hadronic fragmentation and electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) of $^{20}$Ne beams at the LHC and $^{124}$Xe beams at NICA. For light nuclei at LHC energies, our calculations show that hadronic interactions are the dominant channel for nuclear transmutation. This contrasts with the previously established dominance of EMD in $^{208}$Pb-$^{208}$Pb collisions. For $^{20}$Ne-$^{20}$Ne collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.36$ TeV, we provide calculated cross sections and momentum distributions of produced nuclei such as $^4$He, $^{12}$C, $^{14}$N, and $^{16}$O. These results are essential for assessing potential contamination of the $^{20}$Ne-$^{20}$Ne event sample by collisions involving other nuclear species. Secondary nuclei will be also produced in the EMD of $^{124}$Xe beams at NICA, but they will not contaminate $^{124}$Xe-$^{124}$Xe data.