Energy Deposition in Intermediate-Energy Nucleon-Nucleus Collisions

A global study of the mass, energy, and angular distributions of all products formed in collisions of 180-MeV protons with ${}_{}{}^{27}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Al}$ is reported. These data are compared with calculations based on intranuclear-cascade-plus-evaporation, preequilibrium hybrid, and semiempirical models. It is found that there is evidence for enhanced energy deposition in nucleon-nucleus collisions relative to predictions of intranuclear cascade calculations. In contrast, preequilibrium calculations produce stronger energy damping, more consistent with observed data.