Measurement and resonance analysis of the ³³S(n,α)³⁰Si cross section at the CERN n_TOF facility in the energy region from 10 to 300 keV

Abstract

The ³³S(n,α)³⁰Si cross section has been measured at the neutron time-of-flight (n_TOF) facility at CERN in the neutron energy range from 10 to 300 keV relative to the ¹⁰B(n,α)⁷Li cross-section standard. Both reactions were measured simultaneously with a set of micromegas detectors. The flight path of 185 m has allowed us to obtain the cross section with high-energy resolution. An accurate description of the resonances has been performed by means of the multilevel multichannel R-matrix code sammy. The results show a significantly higher area of the biggest resonance (13.45 keV) than the unique high-resolution (n,α) measurement. The new parametrization of the 13.45-keV resonance is similar to that of the unique transmission measurement. This resonance is a matter of research in neutron-capture therapy. The ³³S(n,α)³⁰Si cross section has been studied in previous works because of its role in the production of ³⁶S in stars, which is currently overproduced in stellar models compared to observations.