Calculations of Compound Nucleus Spin-Parity Distributions Populated via the (p,t) Reaction in Support of Surrogate Neutron Capture Measurements

¹ AWE Aldermaston, Reading, Berkshire, RG7 4PR, United Kingdom
² University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
³ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA

^a e-mail: james.benstead@awe.co.uk

Published online: 21 June 2016

Abstract

The surrogate reaction method may be used to determine the cross section for neutron induced reactions not accessible through standard experimental techniques. This is achieved by creating the same compound nucleus as would be expected in the desired reaction, but through a different incident channel, generally a direct transfer reaction. So far, the surrogate technique has been applied with reasonable success to determine the fission cross section for a number of actinides, but has been less successful when applied to other reactions, e.g. neutron capture, due to a ‘spin-parity mismatch’. This mismatch, between the spin and parity distributions of the excited levels of the compound nucleus populated in the desired and surrogate channels, leads to differing decay probabilities and hence reduces the validity of using the surrogate method to infer the cross section in the desired channel. A greater theoretical understanding of the expected distribution of levels excited in both the desired and surrogate channels is therefore required in order to attempt to address this mismatch and allow the method to be utilised with greater confidence. Two neutron transfer reactions, e.g. (p,t), which allow the technique to be utilised for isotopes further removed from the line of stability, are the subject of this study. Results are presented for the calculated distribution of compound nucleus states populated in ⁹⁰Zr, via the ⁹⁰Zr(p,t)⁹⁰Zr reaction, and are compared against measured data at an incident proton energy of 28.56 MeV.