The thermal neutron capture cross section of the radioactive isotope ${}^{60}$Fe

Abstract

50% of the heavy element abundances are produced via slow neutron capture reactions in different stellar scenarios. The underlying nucleosynthesis models need the input of neutron capture cross sections. One of the fundamental signatures for active nucleosynthesis in our galaxy is the observation of long-lived radioactive isotopes, such as ${}^{60}$Fe with a half-life of $2.60\times 10^6$ yr. To reproduce this $\gamma$-activity in the universe, the nucleosynthesis of ${}^{60}$Fe has to be understood reliably. A ${}^{60}$Fe sample produced at the Paul-Scherrer-Institut was activated with thermal and epithermal neutrons at the research reactor at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. The thermal neutron capture cross section has been measured for the first time to ${\sigma }_{\text{th}}=0.226{(}_{-0.049}^{+0.044})$ b. An upper limit of ${\sigma }_{\text{RI}}<0.50$ b could be determined for the resonance integral. An extrapolation towards the astrophysicaly interesting energy regime between $kT$=10 keV and 100 keV illustrates that the s-wave part of the direct capture component can be neglected.

arXiv comment8 pages, 8 Figs, accepted for publication at PRC

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• New insights from cosmic gamma rays