Momentum Imparted to Complex Nuclei in High-Energy Interactions

Abstract

The momentum imparted to nuclei in the cascade process has been calculated with the aid of the results of a recent Monte Carlo calculation. Results are presented for 0.46-1.84 Bev protons incident on ${\mathrm{Ru}}^{100}$, ${\mathrm{Bi}}^{209}$, and ${\mathrm{U}}^{238}$. The forward and transverse components of momentum of the residual nucleus exhibit a wide range of possible values and are, on the average, approximately equal. The average forward component of momentum increases linearly with the excitation energy of the residual nucleus. The relation between these two quantities leads to considerably lower values of the average excitation energy associated with experimentally determined values of the forward component of momentum than the relations used previously. The calculated momentum values are in most cases consistent with experimental results.