Measurements of the 96Zr(α,n) cross section for astrophysics and applications

• Published in: Physical review. C 2022-08, Vol.106 (2)
• Main Authors: Hamad, G., Brandenburg, K., Meisel, Z., Brune, C. R., Carter, D. E., Ingram, D. C., Jones-Alberty, Y., Massey, T. N., Saxena, M., Soltesz, D., Subedi, S. K., Voinov, A. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY; RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
• ISSN: 2469-9985; 2469-9993

The reaction 96Zr(α,n) plays an important role in ν-driven wind nucleosynthesis in core-collapse supernovae and is a possible avenue for medical isotope production. Here, cross section measurements were performed using the activation technique at the Edwards Accelerator Laboratory. Results were analyzed along with world data on the 96Zr(α, n) cross section and 96Zr(α, α) differential cross section using large-scale Hauser-Feshbach calculations. We find general agreement between our data, previous measurements, and a statistical description of the reaction. However, we find a larger cross section at low energies compared to prior experimental results, allowing for a larger astrophysical reaction rate. This may impact results of core-collapse supernova ν-driven wind nucleosynthesis calculations, but does not significantly alter prior conclusions about 99Mo production for medical physics applications. The results from our large-scale Hauser-Feshbach calculations demonstrate that phenomenological optical potentials may yet be adequate to describe (α, n) reactions of interest for ν-driven wind nucleosynthesis, albeit with regionally-adjusted model parameters.