Coulomb Dissociation of $^{15}$C and Radiative Neutron Capture on $^{14}$C

TL;DR

This paper uses a semiclassical dynamical model to analyze Coulomb dissociation of $^{15}$C and deduces neutron capture cross sections on $^{14}$C, achieving agreement with direct measurements.

Contribution

It applies a realistic optical potential-based semiclassical model to analyze $^{15}$C dissociation and extract neutron capture cross sections, providing a consistent theoretical framework.

Findings

The model accurately reproduces decay-energy spectra.

The deduced neutron capture cross section agrees with direct measurements.

The approach validates the semiclassical description for weakly bound nuclei.

Abstract

The semiclassical, dynamical description of diffraction dissociation of weakly bound nuclei is applied to analyze the decay-energy spectra of $^{15}$C that have been measured at 68 MeV/nucleon on a Pb target. The optical potentials that are used to describe the nuclear interaction of $^{15}$C with the target nucleus are realistic because the fits to the two measured spectra, one with a small and one with a very large acceptance angle, are consistent and of similar quality. The cross section for the radiative neutron capture on $^{14}$C to the 1/2$^+$ ground state of $^{15}$C is deduced from the analysis. When combined with an estimated contribution from the capture to the 5/2$^+$ excited state of $^{15}$C, an excellent agreement with a recent direct capture measurement is achieved.