Speakers
Description
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sez. di Bari, Bari, Italy
- Università degli studi di Bari, Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Bari, Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sez. di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico d’Abbruzzo, Teramo, Italy
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sez. di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Bologna, Italy
- European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland
- ENEA Research Centre E. Clementel, Bologna, Italy
The neutron capture reaction cross section of gadolinium isotopes play an important role in several fields of Physics, for instance in Nuclear Astrophysics for the understanding of the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements (beyond iron) in stars via the s- and r-processes [1] 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 [2, 3]. For this reason, in the last decade, the study of neutron capture reaction $^{160}$Gd(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 will provide high resolution, high-accuracy data on this important reaction of interest for Nuclear Astrophysics and Nuclear Medicine, in the energy range from thermal to tens of keV. In this talk, the preliminary results of the n_TOF measurement will be presented.
References:
[1] F. Käppeler, R. Gallino, S. Bisterzo, Wako Aoki, Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 157 (2011)
[2] C. Müller, K. Zhernosekov et al., Jour. of Nucl. Med. 53 (12) 1951 - 1959
[3] S. Lehenberger, C. Barkhausen et al., Nucl. Med. and Biol. 38 (2011) 917 - 924