MESON PRODUCTION IN NUCLEUS-NUCLEUS COLLISIONS
Abstract
Nucleus-nucleus collisions at cosmic ray energies are described by a simple geometrical model as a reaction in two stages: (a) Violent head-on collisions between incident and target nucleons in the overlapping volumes of the 2 colliding nuclei, in which many mesons and relativistic nucleons are formed, and make the jet of shower particles of the heavy primary stars in photographic emulsion. The average number of shower particles so produced is proportional to the average number of colliding incident nucleons; and (b) Nuclear excitation of the non-directly hit parts of both incident and target nuclei. This excitation causes in most cases the complete disintegration of the incident nucleus into nucleons, alpha-particles, and heavier fragments. The analysis of the angular distribution of protons and alpha-particles (black prongs) associated with large stars indicate a slight movement whose effective velocity is about 0.03 of the excited heavy (Br and Ag) target nuclei. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 15, 1960
- Accession Number
- AD0267529
Entities
People
- Grant C. B. Alexander
- J. Avidan
Organizations
- Weizmann Institute of Science