Direct measurements of total reaction cross sections (${\sigma }_R$) have been performed in the energy range of 10–300 MeV/nucleon for heavy ion collisions. A decrease of ${\sigma }_R$ with increasing energy was observed for a wide range of masses of the colliding systems. The data suggest that ${\sigma }_R$ reaches a minimum located around 300 MeV/nucleon independently of the projectile target combination. A dependence of ${\sigma }_R$ on mass asymmetry of the system is also demonstrated. Trends of ${\sigma }_R$ in this energy range are well reproduced by the predictions of a simple microscopic model based on individual nucleon-nucleon collisions. Our data have been employed in this framework to derive a new semi- empirical parametrization of ${\sigma }_R$. Most of the experimental results in the intermediate and high energy range have been reproduced by this parametrization using a single energy-dependent parameter.

• Received 10 October 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.35.1678