September 10, 2007, noon, room 112W
Robert Hatarik (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Benchmarking a surrogate reaction for neutron capture

Neutron capture cross sections on unstable nuclei are important for many applications in nuclear structure and astrophysics, but measuring these cross sections directly is impossible for short lived species. An indirect approach for measuring these cross sections is the surrogate reaction method, which relates the desired cross section to a cross section of an alternate reaction that proceeds through the same compound nucleus. A benchmark experiment has been performed to test if the (d,p) transfer reaction can be used as a surrogate for neutron capture. Results of the (d,p) surrogate experiment will be compared to the cross sections known from experimental neutron capture data.



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