Inclusive proton spectra and total reaction cross sections for proton-nucleus scattering at 800 MeV

Current applications of multiple scattering theory to describe the elastic scattering of medium energy protons from nuclei have been shown to be quite successful in reproducing the experimental cross sections. These calculations use the impulse approximation, wherein the scattering from individual nucleons in the nucleus is described by the scattering amplitude for a free nucleon. Such an approximation restricts the inelastic channels to those initiated by nucleon-nucleon scattering. As a first step in determining the nature of p + nucleus scattering at 800 MeV, both total reaction cross sections and (p,p') inclusive cross sections were measured and compared to the free p + p cross sections for hydrogen, deuterium, calcium 40, carbon 12, and lead 208. It is concluded that as much as 85% of all reactions in a nucleus proceed from interactions with a single nucleon in the nucleus, and that the impulse approximation is a good starting point for a microscopic description of p + nucleus interactions at 800 MeV.