Neutron spectroscopic factors of 7Li and astrophysical 6Li(n,g)7Li reaction rates

TL;DR

This study measures neutron spectroscopic factors of 7Li via elastic and transfer reactions, enabling improved calculations of 6Li(n,g)7Li reaction rates relevant for astrophysics.

Contribution

It provides new spectroscopic factors for 7Li and applies them to refine astrophysical reaction rate calculations.

Findings

Spectroscopic factors for 7Li ground and excited states determined.

Reaction rates for 6Li(n,g)7Li calculated with improved accuracy.

Optical potential fitted from elastic scattering data.

Abstract

Angular distributions of the 7Li(6Li,6Li)7Li elastic scattering and the 7Li(6Li,7Li_{g.s.})6Li, 7Li(6Li,7Li*_{0.48})6Li transfer reactions at Ec.m. = 23.7 MeV were measured with the Q3D magnetic spectrograph. The optical potential of 6Li+7Li was obtained by fitting the elastic scattering differential cross sections. Based on the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) analysis, spectroscopic factors of 7Li=6Li+n were determined to be 0.73 +- 0.05 and 0.90 +- 0.09 for the ground and first exited states in 7Li, respectively. Using the spectroscopic factors, the cross sections of the 6Li(n,g)7Li direct neutron capture reactions and the astrophysical 6Li(n,g)7Li reaction rates were derived.