# Peculiarities of isotopic temperatures obtained from p + A collisions at 1 GeV

<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>institutetext:  St.Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188350 Gatchina, Russia   
Russian Academy of Science <sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>institutetext: Institut für Kern- und Hadronenphysik, FZR inc., 01314 Dresden, Germany  (Received: )  

## Abstract

The nuclear temperatures obtained from inclusive measurements of double isotopic yield ratios of fragments produced in 1 GeV p+A collisions amount to $``$ 4 MeV nearly independent from the target mass.

The pioneering studies in ref.poch  hint to the transition between liquid and gaseous phases of nuclear matter. The nuclear temperature as the crucial observable was derived from the isotope thermometer based on double yield ratios albergo  (see below). This thermometer is assumed to be sensitive to the local temperature at the particle freeze-out serf . Meanwhile, the critical behaviour has been established in various heavy-ion collisions involving medium and heavy mass nuclei. Whereas the underlying Statistical Multifragmentation Model bondorf  was successful in this mass region it is open whether the statistical nature of fragmentation processes can be seen and classified in small many-body systems botv2 . Therefore, temperature measurements in light nuclei with tested isotope thermometers are highly desirable.   
A search for reliable isotope thermometers in proton induced collisions p+Xe$``$IMF(3$`Z14`$)+X at beam momentum from 80 to 250 GeV/c was recently performed in ref.tsang  where it was established that such thermometers show a characteristic behaviour that is independent of the reaction type. Encouraged by this finding we have analysed the data available from inclusive measurements of   
1 GeV proton interactions with various target nuclei. The data taken into consideration were obtained in some independent experimental projects performed at the external proton beam of the PNPI synchrocyclotron Gatchina.   
(i) One experiment was addressed to Light Charged Particle (LCP) detection at backward angles MNA1 :

p(1GeV)+(<sup>6</sup>Li,<sup>7</sup>Li,Be,C,Al,<sup>58</sup>Ni,Ag,Pb)$``$LCP(Z=1)+X

The basic tool was a lense spectrometer with a momentum resolution of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$p/p$``$2.5% within the dynamical range from 0.25 to 0.75 GeV/c. This spectrometer was installed at $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{lab}`$=109<sup>o</sup> and 156<sup>o</sup> with respect to the beam axis. TOF measurements allowed to separate the hydrogen isotopes obtained from proton collisions with various targets from <sup>6</sup>Li to lead. Differential cross sections were obtained from the kinetic energy spectra extrapolated by fits with a Maxwell functional form. For the first time, we attend to the yields of hydrogen isotopes and employed the thermometer based on the double-ratio (<sup>2</sup>H/<sup>3</sup>H)/(<sup>1</sup>H/<sup>2</sup>H).   
Thus, it became possible to determine the temperature of <sup>6</sup>Li as the smallest probe. Hitherto, the hydrogen isotope yields have casted doubt on usefulness as thermometer since different nonequilibrium processes may contribute to these yields. Such contributions should be suppressed under our kinematical conditions and we consider the hydrogen yields as an adequate tool for temperature measurements.   
(ii) The second data set to be analysed involves Intermediate Mass Fragments (IMF):

p(1GeV)+(Be,C,<sup>58</sup>Ni, Ag,Au,<sup>238</sup>U)$``$IMF(Z$``$2)+X

As the incident energy was kept fixed at 1 GeV we expect that target-spectator fragmentation contributes mainly to the observables. In distinction from heavy-ion collisions the influence of compression and collective motion on the fragment abundancies and on the related temperatures shlomo  is supposed to be minimized.   
IMF production was studied in p+Ag, Au and U collisions at $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{lab}`$=60<sup>o</sup> and 120<sup>o</sup> volnin1  with a setup consisting of the above mentioned magnetic lense spectrometer combined with a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E-E telescope. The energy resolution of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E-detector ( $``$ 50 keV) allowed to separate isotopes of fragments from helium to boron. Absolute cross sections were obtained by integration of the inclusive energy spectra approximated by a moving source fit and angular integration using the expression d$`\sigma `$/d$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$=$`c_1+c_2cos\mathrm{\Theta }_{lab}`$. We included into this analysis additional differential cross sections at $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{lab}`$=60<sup>o</sup> of fragments produced in 1 GeV proton collisions with <sup>48</sup>Ti, <sup>58</sup>Ni, <sup>64</sup>Ni, <sup>112</sup>Sn and <sup>124</sup>Sn volnin2 .   
(iii) Isotopically separated fragments from <sup>9</sup>Be and <sup>12</sup>C targets have been registered with an experimental setup consisting of two TOF-E spectrometers installed at   
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{lab}`$=30<sup>o</sup> and 126<sup>o</sup> with respect to the beam axis land1 . The basic detectors in each arm were twin Bragg Ionization Chambers combined with Parallel Plate Avalanche Counters. This setup, in general described in ref. nim , allowed to measure the low energy part of the kinetic energy distributions of the fragments below $``$ 30 MeV. This part of the fragment spectrum, well reproduced by a moving-source fit with one exponential slope, is expected to represent mainly the equilibrated component.   
From the inclusive differential and absolute cross sections measured in the mentioned experiments we derived isotopic yield ratios.   
The method of temperature evaluation from isotopic abundancies,ref. albergo  is related to five assumptions summarized in ref. milazzo . The most important one is the selection of fragments emitted from a single and equilibrated source. These conditions are assumed to be fulfilled rather well at 1 GeV incident energy if the emission from the target spectator is considered. Experimentally, detection in backward direction and (or) registration of fragments with low kinetic energies should satisfy these requirements. According to ref.albergo  the temperature can be obtained from the relation

$$T_{app}=\frac{B}{ln(aR)},$$
(1)   
where the double ratio R =R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> is defined by the isotope yields (Y)

R<sub>1</sub> = Y(A<sub>i</sub>,Z<sub>i</sub>) / Y(A<sub>i</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A,Z<sub>i</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z)

R<sub>2</sub> = Y(A<sub>j</sub>,Z<sub>j</sub>) / Y(A<sub>j</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A,Z<sub>j</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z)

which is valid if the fragments with mass A<sub>i</sub>,A<sub>j</sub> and nuclear charge Z<sub>i</sub>,Z<sub>j</sub> are produced in their ground states. Each combination of ($`R,a,B`$) in equation (1) terms a ”thermometer” which allows to find the absolute or relative temperature related to the fragment formation. The numerator B in equation (1) is determined by the binding energies BE

B = BE(A<sub>i</sub>,Z<sub>i</sub>) - BE(A<sub>i</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A,Z<sub>i</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z) – BE(A<sub>j</sub>,Z<sub>j</sub>) + BE(A<sub>j</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A,Z<sub>j</sub>+$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z).

The magnitude $`a`$ includes the spin degeneration factor and mass numbers of the considered isotopes. The intrinsic nuclear temperature is proportional to the temperature measured by means of relation (1) up to 5-7 MeV as shown in ref.hxi . We selected pairs with the same  $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A = $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z=1 where the influence of the chemical potentials cancels out. The choice of pairs with  $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A =1, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z=0 was made to minimize the influence of Coulomb barriers onto the yields.   
The relation (1) must be modified for ”sequential decays”, i.e. if particle decays from higher lying states of the same and other isotopes contributes to the yields. In the special case of thermometers selected by $`B`$ 10 MeV an empirical correction for sequential decays was published in ref. tsang 

$$\frac{1}{T_{app}}=\frac{1}{T_o}+\frac{ln(\kappa )}{B}$$
(2)   
where T<sub>o</sub> is the unknown intrinsic equilibrium temperature. The correction factor $`\kappa `$ is defined by $`R_{app}`$=$`\kappa R_o`$ where $`R_{app}`$ is the measured double isotope yield ratio and $`R_o`$ the corresponding one for isotopes produced at equilibrium. The sensitivity of the thermometers improves with increasing B reducing relative errors. In the limit where B becomes equal or less the intrinsic temperature appreciable contributions from sequential decays may affect the yields milazzo .

In figs.1–3 we present the dependence of T<sub>app</sub> on the target mass number A<sub>T</sub> as obtained by individual thermometers. Hereby, neither selection criterion B$``$ 10 MeV nor correction for sequential decays were applied to avoid in the first instance detailed discussions about it.   
Fig. 1 shows the results obtained with the LCP thermometer (<sup>2</sup>H/<sup>3</sup>H)/(<sup>1</sup>H/<sup>2</sup>H) for two angles. One can see that T<sub>app</sub> is nearly a constant over the target mass region 6$`A_T`$ 208 for $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$=109<sup>o</sup> (top of fig.1). Since this behaviour is also established by IMF thermometers (see below) we cannot confirm the former doubts about the utility of the ratio $`Y(p)/Y(d)`$ (ref.albergo ). But the temperatures which are derived from the hydrogen yields at $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$= 156<sup>o</sup> (lower part of fig.1) show some increase toward smaller A<sub>T</sub>. We guess that an admixture of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobaric state becomes apparent in the used differential cross sections. Fits performed with a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution including a Breit-Wigner contribution evidence this enhancement for the smallest A<sub>T</sub> but the error bars become larger.   
We plot the temperatures obtained by He and IMF yields as function of A<sub>T</sub> in fig. 2. Additional data given in fig. 3 confirm the finding observed in fig.1 and 2. Whereas IMF thermometers provide constant temperatures, some dependence on A<sub>T</sub> is observed if we make use of the ratio <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He.

A comparison of temperatures derived from double ratios with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A=1,$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z=0 with those of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$A=1,$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z=1 shows that they are equal within the error bars apart from some larger fluctuations. The observed agreement of the studied thermometers exhibits that possibly each one is suitable for relative temperature measurements without the hitherto introduced limitation B $``$ 10 MeV. For a given thermometer the influence of sequential decays seems to be independent from the origin of the excited primordial fragments. This behaviour is rather surprising since the target mass number (or the volume of the fragmenting nuclei, respectively) changes nearly $``$25 times. Under the same conditions, the single ratios of isotope yields show a pronounced dependence on N<sub>T</sub>/Z<sub>T</sub>, ref.rab .   

Next we converted the above values T<sub>app</sub> on the basis of relation (2) into intrinsic temperatures T<sub>o</sub> as far as the correction factors for sequential decay $`\kappa `$ hxi  were available. The mean correction amount to $``$ 5% but does not exceed 15%. Alternative correction methods, e.g. bon2 , valid in a multifragmentation scenario cannot be applied since contributions from this process are $``$5% at 1 GeV incident energy. The behaviour of individual thermometers is demonstrated in the top panel of fig.4. Although the drawn errors are overestimated <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1 The errors drawn in figs.1–4 were obtained by simulations where the primary yields $`Y_i\pm \mathrm{\Delta }Y_i`$ were treated as Gaussian distributions with $`Y_i`$ and $`\sigma _i`$=$`\mathrm{\Delta }Y_i`$. Such procedure provides dependable but enlarged errors $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_o`$ because it takes not into account that systematic errors are to be reduced in the ratios $`Y_i/Y_{i+1}`$ if they are taken from the same experiment. the trend observed with one thermometer is repeated by each of the other ones. Such property hints to a real physical effect. In the lower panel we present the mean averages of the above values in order to compare with other available data. The following features of fig.4 are worth to discuss:   
(i) All temperatures which have been corrected for sequential decays by using equation (2) almost coincide at each target mass number A<sub>T</sub>. Only the thermometer which explores the double ratio (<sup>11</sup>B/<sup>12</sup>B)/(<sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He) overestimates the temperature in the case of the target nuclei $`Au`$ and $`U`$.   

(ii) The temperatures which have been derived from the differential cross sections at $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{lab}`$=60<sup>o</sup> are larger in comparison with those obtained from production cross sections. Enhanced temperatures in forward direction and strong variations in the thermometers with <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He ratios were also reported in ref. Vio98 .   
(iii) Further, we observe pronounced structures in the temperatures. These irregularities are related to fragments from the target nuclei <sup>48</sup>Ti,<sup>58</sup>Ni,<sup>64</sup>Ni,<sup>112</sup>Sn and <sup>124</sup>Sn which were studied to search for the influence of various nucleon composition on the fragmentation process. The authors of this investigation volnin2  stressed that the yields of fragments (except <sup>4</sup>He) normalized to the geometrical cross section depend mainly on the $`N/Z`$ ratio. We presume from this observation that the fluctuations of the temperature usually attributed to sequential decays have a causal connection with the nucleon composition and with the nuclear structure rather than with the size of the fragmenting system. Such hypothesis is suggested by comparing $`T_o`$ of pairs <sup>58</sup>Ni– <sup>64</sup>Ni and <sup>112</sup>Sn–<sup>124</sup>Sn, respectively. It seems to be a property of a fragmentation scenario like the Fermi break-up, ref.botv1 .   
(iiii) The temperatures obtained from the ratios of cross sections show a smooth but weak dependence on the target mass A<sub>T</sub>. The most pronounced increase with decreasing A<sub>T</sub> was observed only for the thermometers which include the ratio <sup>3</sup>He/<sup>4</sup>He (see fig.4). Above all, we attribute this slope to the variation of the inherent nucleon constitution of the target nuclei. Double ratios involving heavier isotopes provide temperatures which are nearly independent on the target mass (see figs.2–3) within the error bars. Although hints to this behaviour were already found in refs.tsang ,Vio98  one may doubt the universal validity of temperature measurements by double isotope ratios. Therefore, we accomplished an independent test of this method using data from an other physical process. For this purpose, yields of isotopes from hydrogen to boron registered in the spontaneous and thermal-neutron induced ternary fission, vorob krog , were processed by the same procedure as applied to them from fragmentation at 1 GeV. <sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2A forthcoming paper is in progress. The used thermometers show a consistent behaviour resulting in significant lower temperatures of  $`T_{app}`$ 1 MeV. Remark that fission neutron spectra are well reproduced by a temperature of $``$0.7 MeV bowman .   
Summarizing, we analyzed inclusive data obtained in   
1 GeV proton interactions with various target nuclei employing different isotope thermometers. We found that even uncorrected thermometers which involve pairs with B$``$ 10 MeV provide ”stable” results which may be suitable for relative temperature measurements. The weak dependence of the temperatures from the target mass A<sub>T</sub> suggests speculations about an unique thermodynamical behaviour whereby the dimensions of the nuclear systems may be changed to a large extent.   
Acknowledgments This work was supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under contract RUS-622-96 and by the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research Grant No. 95-02-03671.