Nuclear Reactions of Iron with 340-Mev Protons

Natural iron has been bombarded with the full energy proton beam of the Berkeley 184-inch synchrocyclotron, and a number of radioactive spallation products have been isolated and identified and their formation cross sections measured against that of the reaction ${\mathrm{Al}}^{27}(p,3\mathrm{pn}){\mathrm{Na}}^{24}$. A simple mechanism has been postulated to account for the observed product yields. A new isotope of chromium, assigned to mass 48, has been observed and partially characterized.