Investigation of Some Stellar Iron Group Fusion Materials for (n, p) Reactions

Abstract

In this study, we present the results of a careful analysis of cross sections of some important iron (Fe) group target elements (20 ≤ Z≤28) for astrophysical (n, p) reactions such as Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co and Ni used in neutron activation analysis have been investigated. The new calculations on the excitation functions of 28Si(n, p)28Al,29Si(n, p)29Al,42Ca(n, p)42K,45Sc(n, p)45Ca,46Ti(n, p)46Sc,51V(n, p)51Ti,52Cr(n, p)52V,53Cr(n, p)53V,54Fe(n, p)54Mn,57Fe(n, p)57Mn,59Co(n, p)59Fe,58Ni(n, p)58Co and60Ni(n, p)60Co reactions have been carried out up to 25 MeV incident neutron energy. In these calculations, the pre-equilibrium and equilibrium effects have been investigated. Equilibrium effects are calculated according to the Weisskopf–Ewing model. The pre-equilibrium calculations involve the geometry dependent hybrid model, hybrid model and equilibrium model. Also in the present work, these reaction cross-sections have been calculated by using evaluated empirical formulas developed by Tel et al. at 14.7 MeV energy. The calculations are compared with existing experimental data as well as with evaluated data files (Experimental Nuclear Reaction Data (EXFOR). According to these calculations, we assume that these model calculations can be applied to some heavy elements, ejected into interstellar medium by dramatic supernova events.