The Role of One Proton Charge Excess in the Cross Section for the Formation and Decay of Compound Nucleus by α emission

Abstract

This research work have been done for the completion of MSc. degree in physics (Nuclear physics) under the title ”The Role of One Proton Charge Excess in the Cross Section for the Formation and Decay of Compound Nucleus by α emission”. This was to evaluate the effect of a single excess charge on the formation and decay of compound nucleus reaction of the neutron and proton, n and p, induced reactions with the same target and at the same energy. To achieve the objective the selected nuclear reactions were 23N a(n, α) 20F , 23N a(p, α) 20Ne to represent light mass region, 65Cu(n, α) 62Co, 65Cu(p, α) 62N i to represent medium mass region, and 90Zr(n, α) 87Sr & 90Zr(p, α) 87Y for the higher mass region. From the research it was concluded that, the coulomb barrier available when the proton projectile approaches the 23N a target nucleus reduces the chance of of reaction between the projectile and the target. This suppresses the reaction cross section for the compound nucleus in light mass region by proton projectile than neutron projectile at the same energy and target. But for the medium and heavy mass region compound nucleus reaction cross section by proton on the same target and the same projectile energy is higher due to the decay of the compound nucleus by alpha particle emission gets supported by the coulomb energy between the residual nucleus and the outgoing particle.