Extracting (n,g) direct capture cross sections from Coulomb dissociation: application to $^{14}$C(n,$\gamma$)$^{15}$C

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to derive neutron capture cross sections from Coulomb dissociation data, validated on 15C, and shows it can reliably estimate 14C(n,g)15C cross sections with comparable accuracy to direct measurements.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new methodology to extract (n,g) cross sections from Coulomb dissociation data, validated with 15C, applicable to other peripheral capture reactions.

Findings

Coulomb dissociation data can be used to reliably extract (n,g) cross sections.

The method yields results with error bars comparable to direct measurements.

Application to 15C demonstrates the approach's validity for 14C(n,g)15C.

Abstract

A methodology for extracting neutron direct capture rates from Coulomb dissociation data is developed and applied to the Coulomb dissociation of 15C on 208Pb at 68 MeV/nucleon. Full Continuum Discretized Coupled Channel calculations are performed and an asymptotic normalization coefficient is determined from a fit to the breakup data. Direct neutron capture calculations using the extracted asymptotic normalization coefficient provide $(n,\gamma)$ cross sections consistent with direct measurements. Our results show that the Coulomb Dissociation data can be reliably used for extracting the cross section for 14C(n,g)15C if the appropriate reaction theory is used. The resulting error bars are of comparable magnitude to those from the direct measurement. This procedure can be used more generally to extract capture cross sections from breakup reactions whenever the desired capture process is fully peripheral.