Optical Model Methods of Predicting Nuclide Fragment Production for Space and Radiation Therapy Applications

Reliable methods of accurately and quickly estimating heavy fragment production cross sections are needed for a variety of applications including the production of beams of radioactive ions, studies of the relative abundance of the nuclei in galactic cosmic rays, space radiation protection, and in radiation therapy for treatment of cancers. Quantum mechanical optical model methods for calculating isotope production cross sections for nucleus-nucleus and nucleus-proton interaction are developed from a modified abrasion-ablation collision formalism. The abrasion step is treated quantum-mechanically as a knockout process which leave the residual prefragment nucleus in an excited state. In ablation the prefragment deexcites to produce the final fragment. The excitation energies of the prefragment are estimated from a combination of liquid drop and frictional­ spectator-interaction combination. Estimates of elemental and isotopic production cross sections are in good agreement with recently published cross section measurements.