Neutron production in the interaction of 2-GeV protons with nuclei

The double-differential cross sections for neutron production in the interactions of 2-GeV protons with Be, Al, Cu, Cd, and Pb nuclei were measured by the time-of-flight method in the region of angles larger than 30°. The respective experimental data are analyzed within the phenomenological model of four moving sources, including those associated with neutron emission in primary nucleon-nucleon collisions, the decay of a hot source (fireball), the multifragmentation process, and the deexcitation of nuclear fragments via neutron evaporation. Temperature-parameter values are universal for all sources and are virtually independent of the target nucleus and of the projectile energy in the region above 0.5 GeV. It is found that, for all of the above reactions, the relative contribution to the mean neutron multiplicity from the decay of a hot source and multifragmentation is about 41%.