Neutron capture cross sections of cerium and thallium in the keV region

Abstract

The neutron capture cross sections of natural cerium and thallium were measured between 10 and 200 keV. The time-of-flight method was used, with a pulsed Van de Graaff accelerator providing the neutron source and with a large liquid scintillator detector. The measured cross sections are extremely low owing to the near-magic nucleon numbers of Ce and Tl. They were averaged over Maxwellian velocity distributions with kT values between 10 and 100 keV so as to be useful for calculations of nucleosynthesis in stars.