Effects of Carbon-12 Intranuclear α−Clustering on the Glauber Model

Measurements of light nuclei fragments produced in nuclear collisions are important in quantifying the damage that space radiation has on astronauts, electronics, and spacecraft. The Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) has the capability to measure such events using their fixed target (FXT) program. The beams will model damage from galactic cosmic rays, currently planned at energies of √s = 5, 20, and 50 GeV, with species C, Al, and Ni. This study will focus on the nucleus-nucleus inelastic cross section in these collisions, because of its use as an indicator of the total nucleus-nucleus cross section and how frequently light nuclei fragments are produced. The goal of this study is to investigate a potential weakness with the Glauber model in accurately determining the inelastic cross section for carbon-carbon collisions. Carbon nuclei have the possibility of consisting of three intranuclear α−clusters, as opposed to consisting of a more typical continuous nucleon distribution. Multiple nuclear α−clustering distributions are considered, and the significance that this different nuclear density profile has on the inelastic cross section is investigated.