Effects of isospin and energy dependences of the nuclear mean field in spallation reactions

In many applications of the intranuclear-cascade (INC) model to spallation reactions, all nucleons in the target are assumed to move in a common potential well. However, the potential depth should depend upon nucleon isospin and energy. The present paper describes the first results obtained after the introduction of these features in the Liege INCL3 model. It is shown that such modifications change cascade particle multiplicities significantly but total particle multiplicities are only slightly altered. Nucleon inclusive cross-sections are not modified significantly, except in the region of the quasi-elastic peaks. In particular, the centroid of the peak in neutron double differential cross-sections relative to proton-induced reactions can be sizeably shifted toward larger energy losses, as is observed experimentally. Implications of these results are discussed.