Production of Negative Pions of Medical Interest by High-Energy Protons

Improvements in intensity and availability of extracted proton beams from high energy accelerators lead to the possibility of forming negative pion beams useful for treating deep-seated cancers. To optimize pion fluxes and design parameters for such beams, an experiment was performed at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron to measure yields of negative pions produced by protons of 6 to 17 GeV/c incident on targets of different thickness and material. Measurements were made at production angles between 0° and 30° for pion momenta from 150 to 350 MeV/c. A dose rate of 24 rads/min in a 100 cm2 field is attainable at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron of the Brookhaven National Laboratory.