Measurement of (α,n) reaction cross sections of erbium isotopes for testing astrophysical rate predictions

Kiss, G. G. and Szücs, T. and Rauscher, T. and Török, Zs. and Csedreki, L. and Fülöp, Zs. and Gyürky, Gy. and Somorjai, E. (2015) Measurement of (α,n) reaction cross sections of erbium isotopes for testing astrophysical rate predictions. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 42 (5). No.-055103. ISSN 0954-3899, ESSN: 1361-6471

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Abstract

The γ-process in core-collapse and/or type Ia supernova explosions is thought to explain the origin of the majority of the so-called p nuclei (the 35 protonrich isotopes between Se and Hg). Reaction rates for γ-process reaction network studies have to be predicted using Hauser–Feshbach statistical model calculations. Recent investigations have shown problems in the prediction of α-widths at astrophysical energies which are an essential input for the statistical model. It has an impact on the reliability of abundance predictions in the upper mass range of the p nuclei. With the measurement of the 164,166Er(α,n) 167,169Yb reaction cross sections at energies close to the astrophysically relevant energy range we tested the recently suggested low energy modification of the α+nucleus optical potential in a mass region where γ-process calculations exhibit an underproduction of the p nuclei. Using the same optical potential for the α-width which was derived from combined 162Er(α,n) and 162Er(α,γ) measurement makes it plausible that a low-energy modification of the optical α+nucleus potential is needed.

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