A 1 Gev/nucleon ion beam strikes typical matter

[PAllen]

A 1 Gev/nucleon ion beam strikes typical matter ...

In this thread:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=622502

the key to figuring out what will happen would seem well modeled by any study or analysis of a 1 Gev/nucleon ion beam striking matter (e.g. a baseball). The density of the beam would be that of air, about 3 x 10^25 ions per cubic meter. Critical is mean free path of ions of that energy in matter, and cross section for nuclear reactions, etc. Googling led me only to studies of lower energy beams (both much lower energy per nucleon, and much lower ion density) hitting very thin foils. Perhaps people on this forum could help more with this gedanken experiment.

One specific question is whether the ball would vaporized or otherwise disintegrated by such a beam within 100 nanoseconds (the time it takes for the ball to reach home plate). One thing we calculated in the other thread is that the number of impinging ions (atoms, initially) within 100 nanoseconds is about 1% of the number of atoms in the ball. That is, within 100 nanoseconds, 10^23 nuclei (mostly nitrogen) at 1 Gev /nucleon would strike a ball consisting of 10^25 atoms.

 

[BigJDubs]

With the cross section of nuclear reactions, some of the nuclei may interact with the nuclei of the ball. This could result in heating up the surface of the ball, but whether it would result in vaporization or even disintegration is a question I cannot answer.