Determination of the cross sections for the production of fragments from relativistic nucleus-nucleus interactions. I. Measurements

Relativistic iron, lanthanum, holmium, and gold projectile nuclei with several different energies have been fragmented in targets of polyethylene, carbon, aluminum, copper, and lead. Our detectors cleanly resolve the individual charges of the heaviest of these fragments and provide some limited information on the masses. We have measured 1256 elemental partial cross sections for the production of fragments from interactions in these target materials. Values have been derived for another 417 cross sections in a hydrogen medium. These cross sections depend on the energy and mass of the projectile nuclei as well as on the nature of the target. Total charge-changing cross sections were also found, but only in a composite target, and have been shown to be weakly dependent on energy. The mean mass losses observed for fragments that have lost a few protons show that typically many neutrons are lost with each proton, producing fragment nuclei that must be highly proton rich, and consequently very unstable. The cross sections for charge pickup on heavy targets show a rapid increase with decreasing energy, particularly for the heaviest targets. The systematics of the dependencies of the partial cross sections will be discussed in a companion paper.