Measurement of the ¹⁶⁰Gd(n, γ) cross section at n_TOF and its medical implications

Abstract

Neutron-capture reactions on gadolinium isotopes play an important role in several fields of physics,in particular in nuclear Astrophysics for the understanding of the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements (beyond iron) in stars via the s- and r-processes and in nuclear technology. Another important application of gadolinium is linked to the production of terbium, that offers a set of clinically interesting isotopes for theranostics, characterized by complementary physical decay characteristics. In particular, the low-energy β −emitter terbium-161 is very similar to lutetium-177 in terms of half-life (6.89 d), β − energy and chemical properties. Being a significant emitter of conversion/Auger electrons, greater therapeutic effect can therefore be expected in comparison to Lu-177. For this reason, in the last decade, the study of the neutron capture reaction ¹⁶⁰Gd(n,γ)¹⁶¹ Gd and the subsequent β − decay in terbium-161 is getting particular attention. As the nuclear data on the Gd-160 neutron capture reaction are quite scarce and inconsistent, a new measurement of the capture cross section of Gd-160 at the CERN neutron Time-Of-Flight facilty was performed in order to provide high resolution, high-accuracy data on this important reaction, in the energy range from thermal to hundreds of keV. In this contribution, the preliminary results of the n_TOF measurement are presented.