Inelastic cross sections in relativistic deuterons on Lead reactions

The inelastic cross section of deuterons hitting a Lead target has been determined by the beam attenuation technique. A spallation neutron source based on Lead target has been irradiated with 1.6 and 2.5 GeV deuterons. Solid state nuclear track detectors as well as the activation method were used in order to obtain the neutron and proton distribution along the surface of the source. The attenuation coefficient was estimated by fitting the experimental data taking into account the build up effect and the beam attenuation. Using the attenuation coefficient, the interaction length and then the inelastic cross section of deuterons on Lead reaction have been determined.

GAINS: neutron inelastic cross section measurements of interest for applications and reaction studies

The paper represents an overview of the measurements performed using GAINS at GELINA (JRC-Geel, Belgium). While undergoing continuous upgrades, the setup produced highly precise cross sections. Our measurements are primarily driven by technological needs with an emphasis on structural materials used in the development of nuclear facilities. However, most cases offered the opportunity to investigate various reaction mechanism and/or nuclear structure issues. We concentrate on several specific experiments describing the particular difficulties we met and the solutions we adopted to infer reliable data and to draw significant conclusions.

Inelastic cross sections of relativistic protons on Lead

The inelastic cross section of relativistic protons in Lead was determined indirectly by measuring the neutron distribution along a Lead spallation neutron source. The spallation neutron source was irradiated by 1, 1.5 and 2 GeV protons. The experimental results were taken using passive methods. A fitting procedure has been applied to the experimental data and the results have been compared with analytical calculation of the produced hadrons’ spatial distribution based on High Energy Physics concepts. Using the beam attenuation coefficient the inelastic cross section of protons in Pb was estimated.

Recent minimum-bias measurements by ATLAS

The Large Hadron Collider provides collisions of protons and nuclei at the highest energies available in the laboratory. A variety of recent results for minimum-bias pp, p+Pb and Pb+Pb collisions obtained by the ATLAS experiment is presented. For pp collisions they include the total and inelastic cross section, properties of minimum-bias events, underlying event characteristics and measurements of diffractive processes. The results for p+Pb and Pb+Pb collisions that are relevant for cosmic ray studies are also presented.