Inclusive ((p)over-right-arrow,α) reaction on 59Co at an incident energy of 100 MeV and comparison with the reaction mechanism for 93Nb between 65 and 160 MeV

Experimental results are presented for the inclusive reaction Co-59((p) over right arrow,alpha) at an incident energy of 100 MeV. A theoretical analysis based on a statistical multistep mechanism indicates that the terminal step leading to emission of an alpha particle can be a pickup or knockout process and that both processes are very prominent. This is a conclusion which is in agreement with an earlier study of the Nb-93((p) over right arrow,alpha) reaction. This inspires an investigation of the reason why a mixture of knockout and pickup is present at an incident energy of 100 MeV, whereas at both higher and lower incident energies knockout appears to dominate for the target nucleus Nb-93. It is found that the different dynamics of the two competing reaction mechanisms provide an explanation for the observed phenomenon. It is speculated that for Co-59 at both lower and higher incident energies the trend is likely to be similar to that of Nb-93.