Speakers
Description
The global semi-macroscopic alpha-nucleus optical potential developed in 2002 [1] has been widely used in calculations of alpha-nucleus reactions, especially since it was implemented in the nuclear reaction code TALYS.
The result of the widespread use of the global semi-microscopic alpha optical potential in calculations of reaction cross sections of medium- and heavy mass nuclei that have been measured recently, suggest that the potential tends to underestimate the alpha-induced cross sections of deformed nuclei. This is expected since the potential is spherical and does not consider deformation effects.
In this paper, we present an extension of the global semi-microscopic alpha-nucleus optical potential that includes deformation effects on both the real and imaginary parts. The new parameterization is adjusted to all available experimental data on alpha elastic scattering and reactions at low energies relevant to nuclear astrophysics applications.
The impact of the new global alpha-nucleus optical potential on large-scale calculations of reaction rates and p-process nucleosynthesis abundances is assessed. In addition, the potential is tested in low-energy (alpha,n) reactions up to 10 MeV that are relevant for applications in reactor fuel cycle, nuclear waste management and low-background detector development for astro-particle investigations.
[1] Demetriou, Grama and Goriely, Nucl. Phys. A 707 (2002) 253.