PRODUCTION CROSS-SECTIONS OF TRITIUM IN HIGH-ENERGY NUCLEAR-REACTIONS WITH 12 GEV PROTONS

Production cross sections of tritium in high energy nuclear reactions with 12 GeV protons were measured for Al, Co, Cu, Nb, Ag, In, Sn, Au and Pb targets. Large production cross sections of > 500 mb were obtained for Au and Pb targets. From their atomic weight dependence, tritium cross sections (sigma) in mb can be expressed as a function of target atomic weight (A) by the following simple equation: sigma-(A) = 95 exp(A/107), which should be useful for predicting unknown cross sections. Together with other existing data at different energies, the present data suggest that there is no energy dependence of tritium cross section at proton energies above several GeV.