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Title: Statistical Features of the Thermal Neutron Capture Cross Sections

Journal Article · · Acta Physica Polonica. Series B
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Sao Paulo (Brazil). Inst. of Advanced Studies. Inst. of Physics; Technological Inst. of Aeronautics (ITA), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil). Dept. of Physics
  2. Technological Inst. of Aeronautics (ITA), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil). Dept. of Physics
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Physics Division; Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Center for Theoretical Physics
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In this paper, we discuss the existence of huge thermal neutron capture cross sections in several nuclei. The values of the cross sections are several orders of magnitude bigger than expected at these very low energies. We lend support to the idea that this phenomenon is random in nature and is similar to what we have learned from the study of parity violation in the actinide region. The idea of statistical doorways is advanced as a unified concept in the delineation of large numbers in the nuclear world. The average number of maxima per unit mass, < nA > in the capture cross section is calculated and related to the underlying cross section correlation function and found to be < nA > = 3/(π√2γA), where γA is a characteristic mass correlation width which designates the degree of remnant coherence in the system. Finally, we trace this coherence to nucleosynthesis which produced the nuclei whose neutron capture cross sections are considered here.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (Brazil); National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (Brazil)
Contributing Organization:
Technological Inst. of Aeronautics (ITA), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1337821
Journal Information:
Acta Physica Polonica. Series B, Vol. 47, Issue 2; ISSN 0587-4254
Publisher:
Jagiellonian UniversityCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 6 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Cited By (2)

The surprisingly large neutron capture cross-section of 88Zr journal January 2019
The neutron within the deuteron as a surrogate for neutron-induced reactions journal December 2019

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