Study of photon strength functions of241Pu and245Cm from neutron capture measurements

E Mendoza,M Bacak,A Gawlik,D Macina,B Fernández-Domíngez,F Käppeler,M Mastromarco,G Bellia,Y Kadi,R Vlastou,V Alcayne,E Jericha,A Musumarra,M Caamaño,L A Damone,S Lo Meo,S Heinitz,A Oprea,S Valenta,F Calviño,F Mingrone,A Negret,E Dupont,P Torres-Sánchez,J Perkowski,M Kokkoris,G Tagliente,N Patronis,M Krtička,G Vannini,V Variale,M Sabaté-Gilarte,V Michalopoulou,V Bécares,C Rubbia,F Ogállar,I Ladarescu,A Stamatopoulos,E Berthoumieux,A Manna,A Pavlik,P Vaz,E Chiaveri,L Audouin,I Ferro-Gonçalves,A Tsinganis,L Cosentino,T Glodariu,Z Eleme,M Dietz,J Andrzejewski,F Gunsing,D Radeck,O Aberle,F Bečvář,V Furman,J Billowes,A Casanovas,S Amaducci,A Masi,D G Jenkins,P J Woods,A.v Skarbeli ,M Busso,E A Maugeri ,A Ferrari,A Ventura,P Finocchiaro,N V Sosnin ,M Barbagallo,Yu N Kopatch ,E González‐Romero ,I Durán,D Kurtulgil,R Reifarth,C Massimi,C Domingo‐Pardo ,L Tassan‐Got ,R Dressler,N Kivel,D Ramos Doval,A Mengoni,S Cristallo,A Brown ,A Mazzone,L Piersanti,M A Cortés‐Giraldo ,Zeynep Talip ,L Caballero,A Wallner,S Urlaß ,A Tarifeño-Saldivia ,Roeland J M Nolte ,R Garg,T Martínez,A Saxena,Y H Chen,V Babiano-Suárez ,J Quesada ,Paolo Milazzo ,D Bosnar,K Göbel,P Mastinu ,N Colonna,J Heyse,Μ Diakaki ,J L Taín ,S Gilardoni,C Lederer-Woods ,M Calviani,D Rochman,C Guerrero,D Cano‐Ott ,F Matteuccí ,Akira Kimura ,P Schillebeeckx,D Schumann,P Žugec,S J Lonsdale ,J Ulrich,V Vlachoudis,J Praena,J Lerendegui-Marco ,F Cerutti,I Porras,G Cortés ,T Wright ,Andrew Smith

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202023901015

Abstract

We have measured theγ-rays following neutron capture on240Pu and244Cm at the n_TOF facility at CERN with the Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) and with C6D6 organic scintillators. The TAC is made of 40 BaF2 crystals operating in coincidence and covering almost the entire solid angle. This allows to obtain information concerning the energy spectra and the multiplicity of the measured captureγ-ray cascades. Additional information is also obtained from the C6D6 detectors. We have analyzed the measured data in order to draw conclusions about the Photon Strength Functions (PSFs) of241Pu and245Cm below their neutron separation energies. The analysis has been performed by fitting the PSFs to the experimental results, using the differential evolution method, in order to find neutron capture cascades capable of reproducing at the same time a great variety of deposited energy spectra.

Highlights

We have measured the 240Pu and 244Cm neutron capture cross sections at the n_TOF facility at CERN [1]
In the Experimental Area 1 (EAR-1) [1] we used the BaF2 Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) [2] for detecting the γrays emitted after neutron capture, and in the Experimental Area 2 (EAR-2) [3] we used three C6D6 liquid scintillators
This has been already done for other actinides in previous studies from measurements performed at n_TOF with the TAC [5,6,7,8,9,10] and with C6D6 detectors [11], and from measurements performed at LANSCE [12] with the BaF2 Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE) [13,14,15]

Summary

Introduction

We have measured the 240Pu and 244Cm neutron capture cross sections at the n_TOF facility at CERN [1]. As an additional result, the data are useful for studying the γ-ray cascades following the 240Pu(n,γ) and 244Cm(n,γ) reactions This has been already done for other actinides in previous studies from measurements performed at n_TOF with the TAC [5,6,7,8,9,10] and with C6D6 detectors [11], and from measurements performed at LANSCE [12] with the BaF2 Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE) [13,14,15]. The results of the simulations are compared with the experimental data Both DICEBOX and DEGEN codes reconstruct the full level scheme and branching ratios of the compound nucleus for generating the cascades. Instead of adjusting the PSFs by hand what we have done is to fit them, with a minimization algorithm, to reproduce the experimental data

Description of the methodology

Results

M1 - Fit M1 - RIPL E2

Conclusions

Future work