Energy dependence of peripheral reactions induced by heavy ions

Collisions of 16O ions on targets of 94Zr, 197Au, 208Pb, and 232Th are investigated at incident energies of 140 and 315 MeV and compared to published data on peripheral collisions at 33.6 GeV. At 140 MeV, the isotope-production cross sections resemble the ground-state Q-value systematics characteristic of a partially-equilibrated, di-nuclear system formed in deeply-inelastic scattering. The yields are independent of shell and pairing effects in the target and residual nuclie. These Q-value systematics fail at 315 MeV, where the relative element yields are similar to those at 33.6 GeV. A theory of projectile fragmentation accounts for the shapes of the inclusive energy spectra as well as for the isotope yields at both energies. The relative cross sections are target independent (i.e., factorize) for the data at 315 MeV incident energy, but limiting fragmentation (i.e. isotope yields independent of energy) applies only at higher energies. The differential cross sections peal at the grazing angle or decrease exponentially, depending on the incident energy and the mass of the ejectile; the distributions are described by classical trajectories and diffraction models for which the reaction time is estimated to be typical of direct reactions. The kinetic energies of the reaction products depend primarily on their charge and only slightly on their mass number. For the 315 MeV results, the velocities of the reaction products at the maximum of the spectrum and the grazing angle are slightly less than the beam velocity and decrease rapidly for larger scattering angles. The results are interpreted with simple fraction and fragmentation models, and are compared to observations at 33.6 GeV.