New measurement of the (12)C(n, gamma)(13)C reaction cross section

Abstract

We present a new measurement of the (12)C(n, gamma)(13)C cross section for netron energies between 10 and 250 keV. In this measurement we used pulsed neutrons and detected prompt gamma-rays emitted by transitions from radiative neutron capture into the low-lying states of C-13. The Maxwellian-averaged cross section derived from the present work is 15.4 +/- 1.0 microbarn for kT = 30 keV, which is about 5 times larger than the estimated value based on the thermal-neutron capture cross section. Our results have implications for nucleosynthesis yields in models of inhomogeneous primordial nucleosynthesis.