Reaction cross-section predictions for nucleon induced reactions

Abstract

A microscopic calculation of the optical potential for nucleon-nucleus scattering has been performed by explicitly coupling the elastic channel to all the particle-hole (p-h) excitation states in the target and to all relevant pickup channels. These p-h states may be regarded as doorway states through which the flux flows to more complicated configurations, and to long-lived compound nucleus resonances. We calculated the reaction cross sections for the nucleon induced reactions on the targets 40,48Ca, 58Ni, 90Zr and 144Sm using the QRPA description of target excitations, coupling to all inelastic open channels, and coupling to all transfer channels corresponding to the formation of a deuteron. The results of such calculations were compared to predictions of a well-established optical potential and with experimental data, reaching very good agreement. The inclusion of couplings to pickup channels was an important contribution to the absorption. For the first time, calculations of excitations account for all of the observed reaction cross-sections, at least for incident energies above 10 MeV.