Measurement of ⁹⁶Zr(n, γ)⁹⁷Zr reaction cross section at the neutron energies of 0.61 and 1.05 MeV and covariance analysis for the uncertainty

The ⁹⁶Zr(n, γ)⁹⁷Zr reaction cross sections relative to ¹⁹⁷Au(n, γ)¹⁹⁸Au monitor reaction with the neutron energies of 0.61 and 1.05 MeV from the ⁷Li(p, n)⁷Be reaction have been measured for the first time by using the activation and off-line γ-ray spectrometric technique. The error analysis of the experimental data was done by considering the partial uncertainties in various attributes and the correlations between those attributes were reported through covariance analysis. The present experimental cross sections have been compared with the theoretical prediction by TALYS-1.8 using the back-shifted Fermi gas model and Brink-Axel Lorentzian γ-ray strength functions. The TALYS-1.8 calculations well predicted the present experimental cross sections at both neutron energies. The spectrum averaged neutron capture cross sections of ⁹⁶Zr obtained in the present work have also been compared with the evaluated cross sections from ENDF/B-VIII.0, JENDL-4, JEFF-3.3, CENDL-3.1 and TENDL-2015 libraries. They are found to be in close agreement with the TENDL-2015 and CENDL-3.1 libraries at the neutron energies of 0.61 and 1.05 MeV. (orig.)