Publications

Neutron Capture on the s-Process Branching Point Tm-171 via Time-of-Flight and Activation

Author(s)
C. Guerrero, J. Lerendegui-Marco, M. Paul, M. Tessler, S. Heinitz, C. Domingo-Pardo, S. Cristallo, R. Dressler, S. Halfon, N. Kivel, U. Köster, E. A. Maugeri, T. Palchan-Hazan, J. M. Quesada, D. Rochman, D. Schumann, L. Weissman, O. Aberle, S. Amaducci, J. Andrzejewski, L. Audouin, V. Bécares, M. Bacak, J. Balibrea, A. Barak, M. Barbagallo, S. Barros, F. Bečvář, C. Beinrucker, D. Berkovits, E. Berthoumieux, J. Billowes, D. Bosnar, M. Brugger, Y. Buzaglo, M. Caamaño, F. Calviño, M. Calviani, D. Cano-Ott, R. Cardella, A. Casanovas, D. M. Castelluccio, F. Cerutti, Y. H. Chen, E. Chiaveri, N. Colonna, G. Cortés, M. A. Cortés-Giraldo, L. Cosentino, H. Dafna, A. Damone, M. Diakaki, M. Dietz, E. Dupont, I. Durán, Y. Eisen, B. Fernández-Domínguez, A. Ferrari, P. Ferreira, P. Finocchiaro, V. Furman, K. Göbel, A. R. García, A. Gawlik, T. Glodariu, I. F. Gonçalves, E. González-Romero, A. Goverdovski, E. Griesmayer, F. Gunsing, H. Harada, T. Heftrich, J. Heyse, T. Hirsh, D. G. Jenkins, E. Jericha, F. Käppeler, Y. Kadi, B. Kaizer, T. Katabuchi, P. Kavrigin, V. Ketlerov, V. Khryachkov, D. Kijel, A. Kimura, M. Kokkoris, A. Kriesel, M. Krtička, E. Leal-Cidoncha, C. Lederer-Woods, H. Leeb, S. Lo Meo, S. J. Lonsdale, R. Losito, D. Macina, A. Manna, J. Marganiec, T. Martínez, C. Massimi, P. Mastinu, M. Mastromarco, F. Matteucci, E. Mendoza, A. Mengoni, P. M. Milazzo, M. A. Millán-Callado, F. Mingrone, M. Mirea, S. Montesano, A. Musumarra, R. Nolte, A. Oprea, N. Patronis, A. Pavlik, J. Perkowski, L. Piersanti, I. Porras, J. Praena, K. Rajeev, T. Rauscher, R. Reifarth, T. Rodríguez-González, P. C. Rout, C. Rubbia, J. A. Ryan, M. Sabaté-Gilarte, A. Saxena, P. Schillebeeckx, S. Schmidt, A. Shor, P. Sedyshev, A. G. Smith, A. Stamatopoulos, G. Tagliente, J. L. Tain, A. Tarifeño-Saldivia, L. Tassan-Got, A. Tsinganis, S. Valenta, G. Vannini, V. Variale, P. Vaz, A. Ventura, V. Vlachoudis, R. Vlastou, A. Wallner, S. Warren, M. Weigand, C. Weiss, C. Wolf, P. J. Woods, T. Wright, P. Žugec
Abstract

The neutron capture cross sections of several unstable nuclides acting as branching points in the s process are crucial for stellar nucleosynthesis studies. The unstable 171Tm (t1/2=1.92  yr) is part of the branching around mass A∼170 but its neutron capture cross section as a function of the neutron energy is not known to date. In this work, following the production for the first time of more than 5 mg of 171Tm at the high-flux reactor Institut Laue-Langevin in France, a sample was produced at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. Two complementary experiments were carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facility (n_TOF) at CERN in Switzerland and at the SARAF liquid lithium target facility at Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel by time of flight and activation, respectively. The result of the time-of-flight experiment consists of the first ever set of resonance parameters and the corresponding average resonance parameters, allowing us to make an estimation of the Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) by extrapolation. The activation measurement provides a direct and more precise measurement of the MACS at 30 keV: 384(40) mb, with which the estimation from the n_TOF data agree at the limit of 1 standard deviation. This value is 2.6 times lower than the JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII evaluations, 25% lower than that of the Bao et al. compilation, and 1.6 times larger than the value recommended in the KADoNiS (v1) database, based on the only previous experiment. Our result affects the nucleosynthesis at the A∼170 branching, namely, the 171Yb abundance increases in the material lost by asymptotic giant branch stars, providing a better match to the available pre-solar SiC grain measurements compared to the calculations based on the current JEFF-3.3 model-based evaluation.

Organisation(s)
Isotope Physics
External organisation(s)
Universidad de Sevilla, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Nuclear Research Center Soreq, Paul Scherrer Institute, Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico d'Abruzzo, Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, University of Lodz, Institut de Physique Nucléaire, CNRS-IN2P3, Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnológica, Technische Universität Wien, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Bari, Instituto Superior Técnico, Charles University Prague, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Université Paris-Saclay, University of Manchester, University of Zagreb, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Bologna, Università degli Studi di Bari, University of Edinburgh, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, University of York, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), University of Bologna, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Legnaro, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Trieste, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Università degli Studi di Catania, University of Ioannina, Universidad de Granada, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Commiss European Communities, Joint Res Ctr, Inst Reference Mat & Measurements, University of Hertfordshire, Universität Basel, Australian National University
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Volume
125
No. of pages
8
ISSN
0031-9007
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.142701
Publication date
10-2020
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103014 Nuclear physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Physics and Astronomy(all)
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/neutron-capture-on-the-sprocess-branching-point-tm171-via-timeofflight-and-activation(8554afd7-4b20-462b-a429-4f202eede4ab).html