It is argued that the measurement of the inclusive quasielastic deuteron production cross section coming from intermediate energy nucleus bombarding nuclei is of considerable theoretical interest. The inclusivity of the measurement leads to simplifications and allows a quasiclassical description to be used. A simple, heuristic, and quantum mechanically well defined formula is derived which includes for the first time a realistic treatment of the multiple scattering complications inherent in the problem. A rough calculation based on this formula gives reasonable agreement with the limited data available. We conclude that the observed number of deuterons does not require nuclear clustering and that the reaction is not highly peripheral. We believe that this and related reactions offer a greater possibility of yielding information on nuclear correlation than had been supposed. The theory of this reaction is shown to be fundamentally related to recent quasiclassical theories of heavy ion collisions.

NUCLEAR REACTIONS General discussion of inclusive reaction theories. Relation to classical theories and statistical mechanics. Application to quasi-elastic deuteron production data. Dependence on energy, angle and nucleus.

• Received 15 July 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.18.2293