Investigation of 58Ni (n, p)58Co reaction cross-section with covariance analysis* *One of the authors (A.H.) sincerely acknowledges the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, for the INSPIRE Fellowship award (No. DST/INSPIRE Fellowship/2019/IF190924). G.S. and B.K.A. acknowledge partial support from the SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, with grants No. SIR/2022/000566 and CRG/2021/000101, respectively

Abstract

The excitation function of the reaction was measured using the well-established neutron activation technique and γ-ray spectroscopy. Neutrons in the energy range of 1.7 to 2.7 were generated using the reaction. The neutron flux was measured using the standard monitor reaction. The results of the neutron spectrum averaged cross-section of reactions were compared with existing cross-section data available in the EXFOR data library as well as with various evaluated data libraries such as ENDF/B-VIII.0, JEFF-3.3, JENDL-4.0, and CENDL-3.2. Theoretical calculations were performed using the nuclear reaction code TALYS. Various nuclear level density (NLD) models were tested, and their results were compared with the present findings. Realistic NLDs were also obtained through the spectral distribution method (SDM). The cross-section results, along with the absolute errors, were obtained by investigating the uncertainty propagation and using the covariance technique. Corrections for γ-ray true coincidence summing, low-energy background neutrons, and γ-ray self attenuation were performed. The experimental cross-section obtained in the present study is consistent with previously published experimental data, evaluated libraries, and theoretical calculations carried out using the TALYS code.