Level Densities of Nuclei from the Inelastic Scattering of 18-Mev Protons

Abstract

The spectra of protons inelastically scattered from Al, Fe, Ni, Cu, Ag, Sn, Pt, and Au have been measured. The energy distribution of the scattered protons is represented only approximately by a Maxwellian distribution. The relative level densities of the target nuclei have been calculated from the proton spectra. The scattering cross sections are compared with the predictions of the statistical model. The results indicate that the observed energy variation of the level densities may not depend on the excitation energy of the residual nucleus primarily, but, instead, there is some evidence that it is a function of the energy of the emitted particle.