Nucleon-induced inelastic cross sections on Ninat

This paper reports on the results of (n,n′γ) and (p,p′γ) cross section measurements on nickel performed at the Geel Electron Linear Accelerator of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (Geel) and at the 9-MV Tandem Accelerator of Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (Bucharest-Magurele), respectively. The main goal was to reliably measure with small uncertainty the most intense transitions arising from the inelastic channel. Comparisons are performed between the extracted results, nuclear reaction model calculations using default parameter values, and previously reported measurements, if available. The broader goal of this paper is related to our study on the possibility of inferring neutron inelastic cross sections from the proton-induced ones, in this case for Ni58. We show that—by making use of the Lane consistency of the nucleon optical model potential and of the constraints offered by the proton data—one can extract a neutron-target potential that better describes the experimental data, as compared to the calculation with default neutron parameters. We also discuss relevant issues and still open questions of our calculations along with future plans for mitigation.6 MoreReceived 8 June 2022Accepted 26 July 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024609Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasModels & methods for nuclear reactionsNeutron physicsNuclear reactionsNucleon induced nuclear reactionsOptical, coupled-channel & distorted wave modelsProperties39 ≤ A ≤ 58TechniquesRadiation detectorsSpectrometers & spectroscopic techniquesNuclear Physics