Thermal neutron captures on $d$ and $^3$He

TL;DR

This study investigates thermal neutron capture reactions on deuterium and helium-3 using advanced nuclear models and chiral effective field theory, finding good agreement with experimental data but notable dependence on the chosen Hamiltonian.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of capture cross sections using chiral and conventional nuclear potentials and electromagnetic currents at thermal energies.

Findings

Predicted cross sections agree with experimental data.

Cross sections show significant dependence on the nuclear Hamiltonian.

Comparison between chiral and conventional frameworks highlights model differences.

Abstract

We report on a study of the $nd$ and $n\,^3$He radiative captures at thermal neutron energies, using wave functions obtained from either chiral or conventional two- and three-nucleon realistic potentials with the hyperspherical harmonics method, and electromagnetic currents derived in chiral effective field theory up to one loop. The predicted $nd$ and $n\,^3$He cross sections are in good agreement with data, but exhibit a significant dependence on the input Hamiltonian. A comparison is also made between these and new results for the $nd$ and $n\,^3$He cross sections obtained in the conventional framework for both potentials and currents.