Total reaction cross section on a deuteron target and the eclipse effect of the constituent neutron and proton

Abstract

Background: Eclipse effect of the neutron and proton in a deuteron target is essential to correctly describe high-energy deuteron scattering. The nucleus-deuteron scattering needs information not only on the nucleus-proton but also the nucleus-neutron interaction, for which no direct measurement of the nucleus-neutron cross sections is available for unstable nuclei. Purpose: We systematically evaluated the total reaction cross sections by a deuteron target to explore the feasibility of extracting the nucleus-neutron interaction from measurable cross sections. Methods: High-energy nucleus-deuteron collision is described by the Glauber model, in which the proton and neutron configuration of the deuteron is explicitly taken into account. Results: Our calculation reproduces available experimental total reaction cross section data on the nucleus-deuteron scattering. The possibility of extracting the nucleus-neutron total reaction cross section from nucleus-deuteron and nucleus-proton total reaction cross sections is explored. The total reaction cross sections of a nucleus by proton, neutron, and deuteron targets can be expressed, to good accuracy, in terms of the nuclear matter radius and neutron skin thickness. Incident-energy dependence of the total reaction cross sections is examined. Conclusions: The total reaction cross section on a deuteron target includes information on both the nucleus-neutron and nucleus-proton profile functions. Measuring the cross sections by deuteron and proton targets is a promising tool to extract the nuclear size properties.