Suppression of soft nuclear bremsstrahlung in proton-nucleus collisions

Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Mar 25;88(12):122302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.122302. Epub 2002 Mar 12.

Abstract

Photon energy spectra up to the kinematic limit have been measured in 190 MeV proton reactions with light and heavy nuclei to investigate the influence of the multiple-scattering process on the photon production. Relative to the predictions of models based on a quasifree production mechanism, a strong suppression of bremsstrahlung is observed in the low-energy region of the photon spectrum. We attribute this effect to the interference of photon amplitudes due to multiple scattering of nucleons in the nuclear medium.