Pre-equilibrium Nuclear Reactions

Book excerpt: While we have attempted to mention at least the most important developments in the theory of pre-equilibrium reactions, the volume of work in this area over the last few years has been so immense that it is not possible to give a comprehensive account of all that has been done. Our aim is to describe as clearly as we can the main physical ideas and to sketch the mathematical formulations that have been developed to enable practical calculations to be made. We attach particular importance to the detailed comparisons between theory and experiment because only in this way is it possible to assess the usefulness and validity of the theories that have been proposed.