Nuclear fragmentation reactions at relativistic energies

Fragmentation reaction cross sections at relativistic energies are investigated using a phenomenological approach. Equations are obtained by a geometrical treatment in the framework of classical dynamics, in which the impact parameter is introduced. A numerical solution is obtained for the Fe-56 + C-12 system at 600 MeV/nucleon incident energy. It is shown that the predicted mass number distribution of fragments reproduces well the experimental data. The Coulomb energy term in the mass formula affects the nuclide dependence of cross sections to a favorable direction.