Low-Energy Intranuclear Cascade Calculation

Abstract

Monte Carlo cascade calculations have been performed for nuclear reactions involving incident protons, neutrons, ${\pi }^{+}$, and ${\pi }^{-}$ on complex nuclei. The upper energy limit of validity of the calculation is ≈350 MeV below which pion production is not likely. In order to determine the effects of a diffuse nuclear edge, calculations were performed both for nucleon-density distributions within the nucleus which approximated the charge distribution obtained from electron-scattering data and for constant-density distributions. The results indicate that the bulk of the effect in going from a uniform to nonuniform nucleon-density distribution is due to the increased nuclear size when a diffuse edge is used, while the effects due to the diffuse edge alone are of second order. The limits of application of the general model have been investigated and are discussed.