New approach to the interaction of cosmic rays with nuclei in spacecraft shielding and the human body
The interaction of high-energy cosmic rays with nuclei in spacecraft shielding and the human body is important for manned interplanetary missions and is not well understood either experimentally or theoretically. We present a new theoretical approach to this problem based on classical hadrodynamics for extended nucleons, which treats nucleons of finite size interacting with massive meson fields. This theory represents the classical analogue of the quantum hadrodynamics of Serot and Walecka without the assumptions of the mean-field approximation and point nucleons. It provides a natural covariant microscopic approach to collisions between cosmic rays and nuclei that automatically includes space-time non-locality and retardation, nonequilibrium phenomena, interactions among all nucleons, and particle production. Unlike previous models, this approach is manifestly Lorentz covariant and satisfies a priori the basic conditions that are present when cosmic rays collide with nuclei, namely an interaction time that is extremely short and a nucleon mean-free path, force range, and internucleon separation that are all comparable in size. We review the history of classical meson-field theory and derive the classical relativistic equations of motion for nucleons of finite size interacting with massive scalar and vector meson fields.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 6784979
- Report Number(s):
- LA-12452-MS; ON: DE93006263
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
663600* -- Radiation Physics-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BIOLOGICAL SHIELDING
BODY
BOSONS
COSMIC RADIATION
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EFFECTIVE MASS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
FLUID MECHANICS
FUNCTIONS
HADRONS
HYDRODYNAMICS
INTERPLANETARY SPACE
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MASS
MECHANICS
MESONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
RADIATIONS
SHIELDING
SPACE
SPACE VEHICLES
STRUCTURE FUNCTIONS
VECTOR MESONS
VEHICLES