A study of galactic cosmic ray propagation models based on the isotopic composition of the elements lithium, beryllium and boron

A good test of a cosmic ray propagation model is its ability to predict the abundances of the light secondary nuclei lithium, beryllium and boron. In particular the more detailed a knowledge we have of these abundances the more strictly we should be able to test our models. For this reason the isotopic composition of these light species should be useful in putting realistic constraints on the parameters of a model. Garcia-Munoz et al. have shown that based on their measured isotopic abundances of lithium, beryllium and boron, they were able to put limits on three important parameters of a leaky box propagation model. The parameters they considered were the source spectral parameter U, the leakage mean free path Λ, and the characteristic adiabatic energy loss due to solar modulation PHI. In this paper we critically evaluate the information one can deduce about these parameters from isotopic composition alone, especially considering the effects of uncertainties in the spallation cross section data