First measurement of the 94Nb(n,γ) cross section at the CERN n_TOF facility

J. Balibrea-Correa; V. Babiano-Suárez; J. Lerendegui-Marco; C. Domingo-Pardo; I. Ladarescu; A. Tarifeño-Saldivia; V. Alcayne; D. Cano-Ott; E. González-Romero; T. Martínez; E. Mendoza; C. Guerrero; F. Calviño; A. Casanovas; U. Köster; N. M. Chiera; R. Dressler; E. A. Maugeri; D. Schumann; O. Aberle; S. Altieri; S. Amaducci; J. Andrzejewski; M. Bacak; C. Beltrami; S. Bennett; A. P. Bernardes; E. Berthoumieux; R. Beyer; M. Boromiza; D. Bosnar; M. Caamaño; M. Calviani; F. Cerutti; G. Cescutti; E. Chiaveri; P. Colombetti; N. Colonna; P. Console Camprini; G. Cortés; M. A. Cortés-Giraldo; L. Cosentino; S. Cristallo; S. Dellmann; M. Di Castro; S. Di Maria; M. Diakaki; M. Dietz; E. Dupont; I. Durán; Z. Eleme; S. Fargier; B. Fernández; B. Fernández-Domínguez; P. Finocchiaro; S. Fiore; F. García-Infantes; A. Gawlik-Ramięga; G. Gervino; S. Gilardoni; F. Gunsing; C. Gustavino; J. Heyse; W. Hillman; D. G. Jenkins; E. Jericha; A. Junghans; Y. Kadi; K. Kaperoni; G. Kaur; A. Kimura; I. Knapová; M. Kokkoris; M. Krtička; N. Kyritsis; C. Lederer-Woods; G. Lerner; A. Manna; A. Masi; C. Massimi; P. Mastinu; M. Mastromarco; A. Mazzone; A. Mengoni; V. Michalopoulou; P. M. Milazzo; R. Mucciola; F. Murtas; E. Musacchio-Gonzalez; A. Musumarra; A. Negret; A. Pérez de Rada; P. Pérez-Maroto; N. Patronis; J. A. Pavón-Rodríguez; M. G. Pellegriti; J. Perkowski; C. Petrone; E. Pirovano; J. Plaza; S. Pomp; I. Porras; J. Praena; J. M. Quesada; R. Reifarth; D. Rochman; Y. Romanets; C. Rubbia; A. Sánchez-Caballero; M. Sabaté-Gilarte; P. Schillebeeckx; A. Sekhar; A. G. Smith; N. V. Sosnin; M. E. Stamati; A. Sturniolo; G. Tagliente; D. Tarrío; P. Torres-Sánchez; E. Vagena; S. Valenta; V. Variale; P. Vaz; G. Vecchio; D. Vescovi; V. Vlachoudis; R. Vlastou; A. Wallner; P. J. Woods; T. Wright; R. Zarrella; P. Žugec

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202327906004

All issues

Volume 279 (2023)

EPJ Web Conf., 279 (2023) 06004

Abstract

Open Access

Issue		EPJ Web Conf. Volume 279, 2023 Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics – X (NPA-X 2022)


Article Number		06004
Number of page(s)		8
Section		s process
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202327906004
Published online		22 March 2023

EPJ Web of Conferences 279, 06004 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202327906004

First measurement of the ⁹⁴Nb(n,γ) cross section at the CERN n_TOF facility

J. Balibrea-Correa¹^*, V. Babiano-Suárez¹, J. Lerendegui-Marco¹, C. Domingo-Pardo¹, I. Ladarescu¹, A. Tarifeño-Saldivia¹, V. Alcayne², D. Cano-Ott², E. González-Romero², T. Martínez², E. Mendoza², C. Guerrero³, F. Calviño⁴, A. Casanovas⁴, U. Köster⁵, N. M. Chiera⁶, R. Dressler⁶, E. A. Maugeri⁶, D. Schumann⁶, O. Aberle⁷, S. Altieri⁸^,9, S. Amaducci¹⁰, J. Andrzejewski¹¹, M. Bacak⁷, C. Beltrami⁸, S. Bennett¹², A. P. Bernardes⁷, E. Berthoumieux¹³, R. Beyer¹⁴, M. Boromiza¹⁵, D. Bosnar¹⁶, M. Caamaño¹⁷, M. Calviani⁷, F. Cerutti⁷, G. Cescutti¹⁸^,19, E. Chiaveri⁷^,12, P. Colombetti²⁰^,21, N. Colonna²², P. Console Camprini²³^,24, G. Cortés⁴, M. A. Cortés-Giraldo³, L. Cosentino¹⁰, S. Cristallo²⁵^,26, S. Dellmann²⁷, M. Di Castro⁷, S. Di Maria²⁸, M. Diakaki²⁹, M. Dietz³⁰, E. Dupont¹³, I. Durán¹⁷, Z. Eleme³¹, S. Fargier⁷, B. Fernández³, B. Fernández-Domínguez¹⁷, P. Finocchiaro¹⁰, S. Fiore²⁴^,32, F. García-Infantes³³, A. Gawlik-Ramięga¹¹, G. Gervino²⁰^,21, S. Gilardoni⁷, F. Gunsing¹³, C. Gustavino³², J. Heyse³⁴, W. Hillman¹², D. G. Jenkins³⁵, E. Jericha³⁶, A. Junghans¹⁴, Y. Kadi⁷, K. Kaperoni²⁹, G. Kaur¹³, A. Kimura³⁷, I. Knapová³⁸, M. Kokkoris²⁹, M. Krtička³⁸, N. Kyritsis²⁹, C. Lederer-Woods³⁹, G. Lerner⁷, A. Manna²³^,40, A. Masi⁷, C. Massimi²³^,40, P. Mastinu⁴¹, M. Mastromarco²²^,42, A. Mazzone²²^,43, A. Mengoni²⁴^,23, V. Michalopoulou²⁹, P. M. Milazzo¹⁸, R. Mucciola²⁵^,44, F. Murtas⁴⁵, E. Musacchio-Gonzalez⁴¹, A. Musumarra⁴⁶^,47, A. Negret¹⁵, A. Pérez de Rada², P. Pérez-Maroto³, N. Patronis³¹, J. A. Pavón-Rodríguez³, M. G. Pellegriti⁴⁶, J. Perkowski¹¹, C. Petrone¹⁵, E. Pirovano³⁰, J. Plaza², S. Pomp⁴⁸, I. Porras³³, J. Praena³³, J. M. Quesada³, R. Reifarth²⁷, D. Rochman⁶, Y. Romanets²⁸, C. Rubbia⁷, A. Sánchez-Caballero², M. Sabaté-Gilarte⁷, P. Schillebeeckx³⁴, A. Sekhar¹², A. G. Smith¹², N. V. Sosnin³⁹, M. E. Stamati³¹, A. Sturniolo²⁰, G. Tagliente²², D. Tarrío⁴⁸, P. Torres-Sánchez³³, E. Vagena³¹, S. Valenta³⁸, V. Variale²², P. Vaz²⁸, G. Vecchio¹⁰, D. Vescovi²⁷, V. Vlachoudis⁷, R. Vlastou²⁹, A. Wallner¹⁴, P. J. Woods³⁹, T. Wright¹², R. Zarrella²³^,40 and P. Žugec¹⁶ and the n_TOF Collaboration

¹ Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC Universidad de Valencia, Spain
² Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Spain
³ Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
⁴ Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
⁵ Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), Grenoble, France
⁶ Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland
⁷ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland
⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pavia, Italy
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Pavia, Italy
¹⁰ INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
¹¹ University of Lodz, Poland
¹² University of Manchester, United Kingdom
¹³ CEA Irfu, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁴ Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany
¹⁵ Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Romania
¹⁶ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
¹⁷ University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
¹⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Italy
¹⁹ Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Italy
²⁰ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, Italy
²¹ Department of Physics, University of Torino, Italy
²² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Italy
²³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna, Italy
²⁴ Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie (ENEA), Italy
²⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, Italy
²⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Osservatorio Astronomico di Teramo, Italy
²⁷ Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
²⁸ Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
²⁹ National Technical University of Athens, Greece
³⁰ Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany
³¹ University of Ioannina, Greece
³² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma1, Roma, Italy
³³ University of Granada, Spain
³⁴ European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Geel, Belgium
³⁵ University of York, United Kingdom
³⁶ TU Wien, Atominstitut, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Wien, Austria
³⁷ Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai-Mura, Japan
³⁸ Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
³⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
⁴⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Italy
⁴¹ INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Italy
⁴² Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Italy
⁴³ Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, Italy
⁴⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, Italy
⁴⁵ INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy
⁴⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Italy
⁴⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Italy
⁴⁸ Uppsala University, Sweden

^* e-mail: javier.balibrea@ific.uv.es

Published online: 22 March 2023

Abstract

One of the crucial ingredients for the improvement of stellar models is the accurate knowledge of neutron capture cross-sections for the different isotopes involved in the s-,r- and i- processes. These measurements can shed light on existing discrepancies between observed and predicted isotopic abundances and help to constrain the physical conditions where these reactions take place along different stages of stellar evolution.

In the particular case of the radioactive ⁹⁴Nb, the ⁹⁴Nb(n,γ) cross-section could play a role in the determination of the s-process production of ⁹⁴Mo in AGB stars, which presently cannot be reproduced by state-of-the-art stellar models. There are no previous ⁹⁴Nb(n,γ) experimental data for the resolved and unresolved resonance regions mainly due to the difficulties in producing highquality samples and also due to limitations in conventional detection systems commonly used in time-of-flight experiments.

Motivated by this situation, a first measurement of the ⁹⁴Nb(n,γ) reaction was carried out at CERN n_TOF, thereby exploiting the high luminosity of the EAR2 area in combination with a new detection system of small-volume C6D6-detectors and a high quality ⁹⁴Nb-sample. The latter was based on hyper-pure 93Nb material activated at the high-flux reactor of ILL-Grenoble. An innovative ring-configuration detection system in close geometry around the capture sample allowed us to significantly enhance the signal-to-background ratio. This set-up was supplemented with two conventional C₆D₆-detectors and a highresolution LaCl₃(Ce)-detector, which will be employed for addressing reliably systematic effects and uncertainties.

At the current status of the data analysis, 18 resonance in ⁹⁴Nb+n have been observed for the first time in the neutron energy range from thermal up to 10 keV.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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