Interactions of 12C ions with emulsion nuclei at momentum 4.2 GeV/c per nucleon and the cascading-evaporation model

The general characteristics of inelastic interactions induced by 12C relativistic nuclei, accelerated by the JINR Synchrophasotron in Dubna, were studied. Multiplicity and angular distributions of charged secondaries were analyzed. The average multiplicities, per incident nucleon, are consistent with those of p, d, and α particle primaries at the same energy per nucleon. The angular distributions of the target fragments (black and grey tracks) are very weakly dependent on the mass number of the incident nucleus. In 90% of 12C inelastic interactions, fragmentations of the projectile nucleus, were observed. The cascading-evaporation model is extended to describe the inelastic interaction of two nuclei at high energies. The experimental data of 12C-emulsion interactions at 4.2 GeV/c per nucleon were systematically compared with the predictions of the model. A good agreement of the model predictions with the experiment is demonstrated. (orig.)