Neutron-induced cross sections -- from raw data to astrophysical rates

Abstract

Neutron capture cross sections are one of the most important nuclear inputs to models of stellar nucleosynthesis of the elements heavier than iron. The activation technique and the time-of-flight method are mostly used to determine the required data experimentally. Recent developments of experimental techniques allow for new experiments on radioactive isotopes. Monte-Carlo based analysis methods give new insights into the systematic uncertainties of previous measurements. We present an overview over the state-of-the-art experimental techniques, a detailed new evaluation of the ${}^{197}$Au(n,$\gamma$) cross section in the keV-regime and the corresponding re-evaluation of 63 more isotopes, which have been measured in the past relative to the gold cross section.

34 pages, 83 figs

References in corpus (6)

• Neutron Reactions in Astrophysics
• Direct measurements of neutron capture on radioactive isotopes
• Determining neutron-capture cross sections via the surrogate reaction technique
• Challenges in nucleosynthesis of trans-iron elements
• Nucleosynthesis simulations for the production of the p-nuclei ${}^{\text{92}}$Mo and ${}^{\text{94}}$Mo in a Supernova type II model
• Behavior of a trapezoid-based data acquisition system up to 100 kHz and beyond

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The activation method for cross section measurements in nuclear astrophysics
• The Status and Future of Direct Nuclear Reaction Measurements for Stellar Burning
• Slow Neutron-Capture Process: Low-mass AGB stars and presolar silicon carbide grains