Deuteron production from intermediate-energy proton-nucleus interactions was investigated through experiments and model calculations, mainly to develop a theoretical model by elucidating the mechanism of cluster production. Spectral double-differential cross sections were measured for inclusive $(p,dx)$ reactions on five targets in the periodic table, namely ${}^{12}$C, ${}^{27}$Al, ${}^{51}$V, ${}^{93}$Nb, and ${}^{197}$Au, at beam energies of 300 and 392 MeV. The cross sections were determined in almost the entire outgoing energy range from the highest down to 30 MeV and at laboratory angles from 20${}^{\circ }$ to 104${}^{\circ }$. To interpret the measured spectra, we proposed a new model that includes the nucleon correlations of the initial- and final-state interactions to describe cluster knockout and pickup within the intranuclear cascade model. The results of the model calculations showed reasonable agreements with those of the experiments. Moreover, the model indicated reasonable predictive power for the ($p{,}^3\mathrm{He}x$), $(p,\alpha x)$, and $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reactions measured elsewhere. The quantum molecular dynamics model underpredicts the results of the experiments by two to three orders except for low-energy portions of the $(p,dx)$ spectra.

• Received 24 May 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.84.064617