Cross Sections from 800 MeV Proton Irradiation of Terbium

TL;DR

This study measures the production cross sections of isotopes in terbium irradiated with 800 MeV protons, comparing experimental results with nuclear reaction models to improve predictive accuracy.

Contribution

It provides new experimental cross section data for terbium isotopes and evaluates the performance of different MCNP6 event generators at high proton energies.

Findings

Cross sections for 36 isotopes were measured.

MCNP6 predictions vary in accuracy across isotopes.

None of the models perfectly match experimental data.

Abstract

A single terbium foil was irradiated with 800 MeV protons to ascertain the potential for production of lanthanide isotopes of interest in medical, astrophysical, and basic science research and to contribute to nuclear data repositories. Isotopes produced in the foil were quantified by gamma spectroscopy. Cross sections for 36 isotopes produced in the irradiation are reported and compared with predictions by the MCNP6 transport code using the CEM03.03, Bertini, and INCL+ABLA event generators. Our results indicate the need to accurately consider fission and fragmentation of relatively light target nuclei like terbium in the modeling of nuclear reactions at 800 MeV. The predictive power of the code was found to be different for each event generator tested but was satisfactory for most of the product yields in the mass region where spallation reactions dominate. However, none of the event generators' results are in complete agreement with measured data.