Account of Nuclear Scattering at Volume Reflection

Abstract

For a particle traversing a bent crystal in the regime of volume reflection we evaluate the probability of interaction with atomic nuclei. Regardless of the continuous potential shape, this probability is found to differ from the corresponding value in an amorphous target by an amount proportional to the crystal bending radius, and the particle deflection angle. Based on this result, we evaluate the rate of inelastic nuclear interactions, and the final beam angular dispersion due to multiple Coulomb scattering. The theoretical predictions are compared with the experiments. The impact of multiple Coulomb scattering on the mean volume reflection angle is also discussed.