Search for direct reaction products in 197Au+ 20Ne from 108 to 171 MeV projectile energy

TL;DR

This study measures production cross sections of various isotopes from 20Ne + gold reactions at 108-171 MeV, exploring the role of direct reactions and comparing experimental data with simulation predictions.

Contribution

It provides experimental cross sections for isotopes potentially produced via direct reactions and evaluates the accuracy of PACE4 and FLUKA simulation codes in predicting these yields.

Findings

PACE4 failed to predict 196Au and 198Au production.

FLUKA significantly underpredicted all isotope yields.

Experimental data suggest direct reactions contribute to isotope production.

Abstract

The heavy ion induced nuclear reactions are of interest to nuclear physics community since long time. In this paper, we have reported production cross sections of 196Au, 198Au, 199Tl, 200Tl, 201Tl, which might be direct reaction (DIR) products, obtained through the interaction of 108-171 MeV 20Ne on natural gold target. The radioisotopes were identified and were quantitatively measured by off-line gamma spectrometry. We have also used two different simulation codes PACE4 and FLUKA (version 4-3.3). PACE4 did not predicted production of 196Au and 198Au, might be because PACE4 does not considers direct reactions, but predicted 199Tl, 200Tl, 201Tl. FLUKA grossly underpredicted production of all these radionuclides.