$\alpha$-Particle Spectrum in the Reaction p+$^{11}$B$\to \alpha + ^8Be^*\to 3\alpha$

TL;DR

This paper models the alpha-particle spectrum in the p+11B reaction at 675 keV using a phenomenological approach, revealing detailed spectral features and particle distribution percentages.

Contribution

It introduces a simple parametrization including Breit-Wigner and Coulomb factors to calculate the alpha spectrum in this specific nuclear reaction.

Findings

The spectrum features a peak from primary alpha emission.

A flat shoulder extends to low energies.

17.5% of alpha particles are below 1.5 MeV, 11% below 1 MeV.

Abstract

Using a simple phenomenological parametrization of the reaction amplitude we calculated $\alpha$-particle spectrum in the reaction p+$^{11}$B$\to \alpha + ^8Be^*\to 3\alpha$ at the resonance proton energy 675 KeV. The parametrization includes Breit-Wigner factor with an energy dependent width for intermediate $^8Be^*$ state and the Coulomb and the centrifugal factors in $\alpha$-particle emission vertexes. The shape of the spectrum consists of a well defined peak corresponding to emission of the primary $\alpha$ and a flat shoulder going down to very low energy. We found that below 1.5 MeV there are 17.5% of $\alpha$'s and below 1 MeV there are 11% of them.