Published May 2008 | Version v1
Journal article

Cross section measurements of the 10B(d,n0)11C reaction below 160 keV

  • 1. Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, North Carolina 27708 (United States)
  • 2. Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708 (United States)
  • 3. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
  • 4. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123 (United States)
  • 5. North Georgia College and State University, Dahlonega, Georgia 30597 (United States)

Description

New data were taken at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory to investigate the plausibility of using low energy deuterons and the 10B(d,n)11C reaction as a portable source of 6.3 MeV neutrons. Analysis of the data at and below incident deuteron energies of 160 keV indicates an n0 neutron cross section that is lower than previous estimates by at least three orders of magnitude. In separate runs, deuterons with two different energies (160 and 140 keV) were stopped in a 10B target. The resulting n0 neutrons of approximately 6.3 MeV were detected at angles between 0 deg. and 150 deg. The angle integrated yields were used to determine the astrophysical S factor for this reaction assuming a constant value for the S factor below 160 keV. The cross sections reported between 130 and 160 keV were calculated using the extracted value of the S factor. The measured n0 cross section is several orders of magnitude smaller than previous results, thus eliminating 10B(d,n)11C as a portable source of intense neutrons with low energy deuteron beams on the order of tens of microamps. In order to gain insight into the reaction dynamics at these low energies the cross section results have been compared with results from calculations using the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) and a detailed Hauser-Feshbach calculation performed by the authors. The angular distribution is consistent with the Hauser-Feshbach calculation suggesting a statistical compound nucleus reaction rather than a direct reaction

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics
Journal Volume
77
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. 054607-054607.6
ISSN
0556-2813
CODEN
PRVCAN

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2008 The American Physical Society