No Arabic abstract
Interference effect of neutron capture cross section between the compound and direct processes is investigated. The compound process is calculated by resonance parameters and the direct process by the potential mode. The interference effect is tested for neutron-rich $^{82}$Ge and $^{134}$Sn nuclei relevant to $r$-process and light nucleus $^{13}$C which is neutron poison in the $s$-process and produces long-lived radioactive nucleus $^{14}$C ($T_{1/2}=5700$ y). The interference effects in those nuclei are significant around resonances, and low energy region if $s$-wave neutron direct capture is possible. Maxwellian averaged cross sections at $kT=30$ and $300$ keV are also calculated, and the interference effect changes the Maxwellian averaged capture cross section largely depending on resonance position.
We review the impact of nuclear forces on matter at neutron-rich extremes. Recent results have shown that neutron-rich nuclei become increasingly sensitive to three-nucleon forces, which are at the forefront of theoretical developments based on effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics. This includes the formation of shell structure, the spectroscopy of exotic nuclei, and the location of the neutron dripline. Nuclear forces also constrain the properties of neutron-rich matter, including the neutron skin, the symmetry energy, and the structure of neutron stars. We first review our understanding of three-nucleon forces and show how chiral effective field theory makes unique predictions for many-body forces. Then, we survey results with three-nucleon forces in neutron-rich oxygen and calcium isotopes and neutron-rich matter, which have been explored with a range of many-body methods. Three-nucleon forces therefore provide an exciting link between theoretical, experimental and observational nuclear physics frontiers.
The radiative neutron capture rates for isotopes of astrophysical interest are commonly calculated within the statistical Hauser-Feshbach reaction model. Such an approach, assuming a high level density in the compound system, can be questioned in light and neutron-rich nuclei for which only a few or no resonant states are available. Therefore, in this work we focus on the direct neutron-capture process. We employ a shell-model approach in several model spaces with well-established effective interactions to calculate spectra and spectroscopic factors in a set of 50 neutron-rich target nuclei in different mass regions, including doubly-, semi-magic and deformed ones. Those theoretical energies and spectroscopic factors are used to evaluate direct neutron capture rates and to test global theoretical models using average spectroscopic factors and level densities based on the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov plus combinatorial method. The comparison of shell-model and global model results reveals several discrepancies that can be related to problems in level densities. All the results show however that the direct capture is non-negligible with respect to the by-default Hauser-Feshbach predictions and can be even 100 times more important for the most neutron-rich nuclei close to the neutron drip line.
Alternative methods to calculate neutron capture cross sections on radioactive nuclei are reported using the theory of Inclusive Non-Elastic Breakup (INEB) developed by Hussein and McVoy [1]. The statistical coupled-channels theory proposed in Ref. [2] is further extended in the realm of random matrices. The case of reactions with the projectile and the target being two-cluster nuclei is also analyzed and applications are made for scattering from a deuteron target [3]. An extension of the theory to a three-cluster projectile incident on a two-cluster target is also discussed. The theoretical developments described here should open new possibilities to obtain information on the neutron capture cross sections of radioactive nuclei using indirect methods.
The discovery of gravitational waves has confirmed old theoretical predictions that binary systems formed with compact stars play a crucial role not only for cosmology and nuclear astrophysics. As a byproduct of these and subsequent observations, it is now clear that neutron-star mergers can be a competitive site for the production of half of the elements heavier than iron in the universe following a sequence of fast neutron capture reactions known as the r process. In this article we discuss an effect which has been so far neglected in calculations of r-process nucleosynthesis in neutron star mergers. We show that the corrections due to the neutron environment even at relatively small neutron densities, within the bounds of numerical hydrodynamical simulations of neutron star mergers and after the onset of the r process, are non-negligible and need to be taken into account to accurately describe the elemental abundance as determined by observations.
The ratio of pairing-energy coefficient to temperature ($a_{p}/T$) of neutron-rich fragments produced in spallation reactions has been investigated by adopting an isobaric yield ratio method deduced in the framework of a modified Fisher model. A series of spallation reactions, 0.5$A$ and 1$A$ GeV $^{208}$Pb + $p$, 1$A$ GeV $^{238}$U + $p$, 0.5$A$ GeV $^{136}$Xe + $d$, 0.2$A$, 0.5$A$ and 1$A$ GeV $^{136}$Xe + $p$, and $^{56}$Fe + $p$ with incident energy ranging from 0.3$A$ to 1.5$A$ GeV, has been analysed. An obvious odd-even staggering is shown in the fragments with small neutron excess ($Iequiv N - Z$), and in the relatively small-$A$ fragments which have large $I$. The values of $a_{p}/T$ for the fragments, with $I$ from 0 to 36, have been found to be in a range from -4 to 4, and most values of $a_{p}/T$ fall in the range from -1 to 1. It is suggested that a small pairing-energy coefficient should be considered in predicting the cross sections of fragments in spallation reactions. It is also concluded that the method proposed in this article is not good for fragments with $A/A_{s} >$ 85% (where $A_{s}$ is the mass number of the spallation system).