Determination of $$\alpha $$-optical potential for reactions with p-nuclei from the study of ($$\alpha $$,n) reactions in the astrophysically relevant energy region

Abstract

Optical potential parameters in nuclear model calculations are determined by fitting elastic scattering angular distribution data. Due to the dominance of Coulomb part, elastic scattering is performed at much higher energies. As a result, a change in potential is required for low-energy astrophysical reactions. A different approach is suggested using (\(\alpha \),n) reaction to determine the modified alpha optical potentials suitable for astrophysically relevant low energy regions. Reactions on p-nuclei in the mass region A \(\approx \) 92–168 have been chosen and a modified McFadden–Satchler \(\alpha \)-optical potential is obtained from fitting the (\(\alpha \),n) reaction data. The effect of level density and \(\gamma \)-ray strength function is also studied using this new potential by analyzing (\(\alpha ,\gamma \)) cross-sections.