Isotopically resolved neutron total cross sections at intermediate energies
C. D. Pruitt, R. J. Charity, L. G. Sobotka, J. M. Elson, D. E. M. Hoff, K. W. Brown, M. C. Atkinson, W. H. Dickhoff, Hye Young Lee, M. Devlin, Ν. Fotiades, S. Mosby
Abstract
The neutron total cross sections ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{tot}}$ of $^{16,18}\mathrm{O},^{58,64}\mathrm{Ni}$, $^{103}\mathrm{Rh}$, and $^{112,124}\mathrm{Sn}$ have been measured at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center from low to intermediate energies $(3\ensuremath{\le}{E}_{\mathrm{lab}}\ensuremath{\le}450 \mathrm{MeV})$ by leveraging wave-form-digitizer technology. The ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{tot}}$ relative differences between isotopes are presented, revealing additional information about the isovector components needed for an accurate optical-model description away from stability. Digitizer-enabled ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{tot}}$-measurement techniques are discussed and a series of uncertainty-quantified dispersive optical model (DOM) analyses using these new data is presented, validating the use of the DOM for modeling light systems $(^{16,18}\mathrm{O})$ and systems with open neutron shells $(^{58,64}\mathrm{Ni} \mathrm{and} ^{112,124}\mathrm{Sn})$. The valence-nucleon spectroscopic factors extracted for each isotope reaffirm the usefulness of high-energy proton reaction cross sections for characterizing depletion from the mean-field expectation.