On the inelastic scattering of fast neutrons in strongly deformed nuclei

A study of elastic and inelastic neutron scattering by the nucleus 186W with incoming energies of 1.8 and 2.75 MeV using the coupled channel method has been made. The 2+ (0.122 MeV), 4+ (0.3966 MeV), 2+ (0.7375 MeV), 3+ (0.8618 MeV) and 4+ (1.031 MeV) excited states are considered. It is shown that in this range of energies, the referred process can be satisfactorily described by the Davydov-Filippov model, considering 186W as a deformed nucleus with nonaxial symmetry, given the quadrupole and the hexadecapole deformations. The scattering process through the compound nucleus is calculated according to the Hauser-Feshbach formula. It is shown that the presence of direct excitation processes can be partly due to the consideration of the nonaxiality of 186W. (Auth.)