Nucleus-nucleus total reaction cross sections

We compare ${\sigma }_R\mathrm{}\left(E\right)\mathrm{}$ for nucleus-nucleus systems (obtained from existing direct measurements and derived from elastic scattering data) with nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-nucleus data. The energy dependence of ${\sigma }_R\mathrm{}\left(E\right)\mathrm{}$ for nucleus-nucleus systems is found to be quite rapid; there appears to be no evidence for an energy independent, geometric ${\sigma }_R$. Simple parameter free microscopic calculations are able to quantitatively reproduce the data and thus, emphasize the dominance of nucleon-nucleon interactions in medium energy nucleus-nucleus collisions.