The format for `mcf.bin'

The information content of an `mcf.bin' file is the same as the corresponding `mcf.asc' file. There is some reordering of the data, but the principal difference is that `mcf.bin' files are in binary format. The material in this section is taken directly from Perkins's draft report [4].

In general terms, the layout of an `mcf.bin' file is as follows. The data is organized by reaction for each target, and to identify and locate the data the file contains four types of structures,

Overall directory:

The `mcf.bin' file starts with this structure, which identifies the targets and tells where in the file to find each target directory.

Target directory:

The block of the file pertaining to a target starts with its target directory, which gives the number of reactions and tells where to find each reaction directory.

Reaction directory:

The reaction directories for a target follow immediately after the target directory. A reaction directory identifies the reaction and gives the energy produced. It also identifies the kinematics type and tells the location of the corresponding kinematics directory.

Kinematics directory:

The kinematics directories for a target are located in the `mcf.bin' file right after its last reaction directory. A kinematics directory identifies the secondary particle and gives the length and location of each block of data. The kinematics data for a target starts immediately after its final kinematics directory.

Hence, if we want to locate the energy-distribution data for a certain secondary particle for a certain reaction and a certain target, we first look in the overall directory to get the location of the target directory. We then look in the target directory to get the location of the desired reaction directory. From the reaction directory we find the location of the kinematics directory, which in turn tells us the length and location of the data for the reaction, including that for the energy distribution.

With this general picture in mind, let us proceed to the fine details. We take a bottom-up approach, starting with the kinematics directories.