Cumulative protons in 12C fragmentation at intermediate energy

In the FRAGM experiment at heavy ion accelerator complex TWAC-ITEP, the proton yields at an angle 3.5° have been measured in fragmentation of carbon ions at T0 = 0.3, 0.6, 0.95 and 2.0 GeV/nucleon on beryllium target. The data are presented as invariant proton yields on cumulative variable x in the range 0.9 < x < 2.4. Proton spectra cover six orders of invariant cross section magnitude. They have been analyzed in the framework of quark cluster fragmentation model. Fragmentation functions of quarkgluon string model are used. The probabilities of the existence of multi-quark clusters in carbon nuclei are estimated to be 8–12% for six-quark clusters and 0.2–0.6% for ninequark clusters.