Neutron capture reactions relevant to s-process and p-process in the domain of the $N=50$ shell closure

TL;DR

This paper calculates neutron capture cross sections for nuclei near the N=50 shell closure using a semi-microscopic Hauser-Feshbach model, comparing results with experiments and providing MACS values relevant to astrophysical nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed semi-microscopic approach for calculating neutron capture cross sections around N=50, incorporating a folded optical model with relativistic mean-field densities.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental cross sections for most nuclei.

Provides MACS values at 30 keV and across 5-100 keV range.

Offers data relevant to s-process and p-process nucleosynthesis.

Abstract

Radiative thermal neutron capture cross sections for nuclei participating in s-process and p-process nucleosynthesis in and around $N=50$ closed neutron shell have been calculated in statistical semi-microscopic Hauser-Feshbach approach for the energy range of astrophysical interest. A folded optical model potential is constructed utilizing the standard DDM3Y real nucleon-nucleon interaction. The folding of the interaction with target radial matter densities, obtained from the relativistic-mean-field approach, is done in coordinate space using the spherical approximation. The standard nuclear reaction code TALYS1.8 is used for cross-section calculation. The cross sections are compared with experimental results and reasonable agreements are found for almost all cases. Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) for the nuclei are presented at a single thermal energy of 30 keV relevant to s-process. We have also presented the MACS values over a range of energy from 5 to 100 keV for neutron magic nuclei with $(N=50)$.