Neutron-induced cross-sections via the surrogate method

The surrogate reaction method is an indirect way of determining neutron-induced cross sections through transfer or inelastic scattering reactions. This method presents the advantage that in some cases the target material is stable or less radioactive than the material required for a neutron-induced measurement. The method is based on the hypothesis that the excited nucleus is a compound nucleus whose decay depends essentially on its excitation energy and on the spin and parity state of the populated compound state. Nevertheless, the spin and parity population differences between the compound-nuclei produced in the neutron and transfer-induced reactions may be different. This work reviews the surrogate method and its validity. Neutron-induced fission cross sections obtained with the surrogate method are in general good agreement. However, it is not yet clear to what extent the surrogate method can be applied to infer radiative capture cross sections. We performed an experiment to determine the gamma decay probabilities for 176Lu and 173Yb by using the surrogate reactions 174Yb(3He,pγ)176Lu* and 174Yb(3He,αγ)173Yb*, respectively, and compare them with the well-known corresponding probabilities obtained in the 175Lu(n,γ) and 172Yb(n,γ) reactions. This experiment provides answers to understand why, in the case of gamma-decay, the surrogate method gives significant deviations compared to the corresponding neutron-induced reaction. In this work, we have also assessed whether the surrogate method can be applied to extract capture probabilities in the actinide region. Previous experiments on fission have also been reinterpreted. Thus, this work provides new insights into the surrogate method. This work is organised in the following way: in chapter 1, the theoretical aspects related to the surrogate method will be introduced. The validity of the surrogate method will be investigated by means of statistical model calculations. In chapter 2, a review on experiments based on the surrogate method will be presented. Our experimental setup will be described in chapter 3. In chapter 4, the data analysis will be detailed with special emphasis on the determination of the -cascade detection efficiency. In chapter 5, we will compare our results with existing neutron-induced data and TALYS calculations and infer the angular momentum distribution populated in the transfer reactions used. In chapter 6, the consequences of our study for the application of the surrogate method will be discussed and finally, in chapter 7, we will present briefly our perspectives for the surrogate technique