Total reaction cross sections of deformed nuclei: A study of the 233, 238U + α systems

Abstract

The cross sections for α-particle scattering and α-particle induced fission of 233, 238U were measured at bombarding energies of 15 to 27 MeV. For these fissionable systems, the fission cross sections are very nearly equal to the total reaction cross sections. These experimental reaction cross sections are compared with various theories based on spherical and deformed potentials in order to investigate the effect of static target deformation on the reaction cross sections. From such comparisons no effect of target deformation is established. An interaction barrier (defined by the condition T L = 0 = 1 2 ) of 22.34 MeV is obtained from a spherical optical model fit to the experimental reaction cross-section data of uranium. This value agrees within 2.3 % with values deduced by a number of other methods.