Nuclear Reactions at 160 MeV Proton Energy on Natural Calcium

The study of radionuclide excitation functions in proton-induced nuclear reactions is of fundamental interest for in vivo treatment verification methods in proton therapy. However, experimental data for these reactions are very limited, especially for proton energies above 20 MeV and show significant discrepancies. In the present work, experimental cross sections of reactions for accelerated protons with an energy of 160 MeV on targets of metallic calcium of natural isotopic composition are measured. For the first time, new data have been obtained on the yield cross sections of reactions with the departure of one to five protons at \({}^{44}\) Ca nuclei. Calculations of the obtained cross sections in the Fermi gas and Gogny–Hartree–Fock–Bogolyubov models using the TALYS1.96 program code are carried out. It is shown that preequilibrium processes dominate in the cross sections. It is noted that the calculated cross sections, as a rule, do not exceed 30 \(\%\) of the experimental ones.