Calculations of kinematics

Josipa Diklic
October 19, 2022

1 Kinetic energy calculation

If we have the projectile p =206 Pb and t =118 Sn, where the particle 2 is target like (Sn-like ions) and
particle 1 is beam like (Pb-like ions). The scheme is plotted in fig.1.

p+t→1+2 (1)

Figure 1: Scheme of the lab and cm system. Black arrows represent the lab system and blue ones cm.

The energy of the system need to be conserved before and after reaction.

EpL + Q = E1L + E2L (2)

Because the momentum is also conserved we have the following two equations:

pL1 cos θ1L + pL2 cos θ2L = pLp ,

(3)
pL1 sin θ1L − pL2 sin θ2L = 0.


In total we have 3 equations and 4 kinematic variables pL1 , θ1L , pL2 , θ2L , so the specification of one
of them is sufficient for the reaction to become completely kinematically determined, in our case that
is θ2L = PRISMA angle (at point G in fig.1). The Q is reaction Q-value e.i. Q0 .
By combining eqs. 2 and 3, in the last step of calculation we need to solve the following:

q  v
mp m2 EpL u
#
q 
Q + E L − m /m E L (m + m ) m
u p p 1 p 1 2 1
E2L = cos θ2L ± t cos2 θ2L + (4)
1,2 m1 + m2 mp m2 EpL

1
 We can make it less complicated by introducing substitutions:

(m1 − mp ) EpL + m1 Q
α≡
m + m2
q 1 (5)
mp m2 EpL
β≡ ,
m1 + m2
Finally, the kinetic energy of the Sn- ions can be calculated from the following equation:
 r 
α
E2L = α + 2β 2 cos θ2L cos θ2L ± cos2 θ2L + 2


1,2
(6)
β

2 CS factor (lab to cm)

If we want to transform differential cross section from lab to cm system we can use the formula given
in [1] (B.12).
dσ dσ
1/2
= |1 − δ2 cos θ2 | 1 + δ22 − 2δ2 cos θ2 (7)
dΩ dω2
While in Bass we have following notation for reaction components:

A1 + A2 → A3 + A4 ,
(8)
here we have: p(P b) + t(Sn) → 1(P b′ ) + 2(Sn′ )

Additional variable δ2 is defined as:

!1/2
mp m2 Ep
δ2 = 2 E (9)
(mp + mt ) 2
Finally if we want to transform cross section from lab to cm system we need to use the following
factor:

1/2
f (θ2 , E2 ) = |1 − δ2 cos θ2 | 1 + δ22 − 2δ2 cos θ2 (10)

The same factor can be use as the normalization of events in Wilczynski plots.

3 Angle lab to cm
To calculate the angle in cm system we can use very good approximation:

ΘCM ≈ 180 − 2θ2L ,

or we can calculate it correctly by Bass formula B.9 ([1]),

sin θ2 [δ2 cos θ2 ± (1 − δ2 cos θ2 )]

sin ΘCM = 1/2
(11)
(1 + δ22 − 2δ2 cos θ2 )
where in this equation the ΘCM is given as in fig.1, so for target like fragments we have the following:
!
sin θ2 [δ2 cos θ2 ± (1 − δ2 cos θ2 )]
ΘCM = 180 − arcsin 1/2
(12)
(1 + δ22 − 2δ2 cos θ2 )

References
[1] Reiner Bass, Nuclear Reactions with Heavy Ions, 1980.