The reaction of Fe and Ni at intermediate energies

Abstract

Experimentally and theoretically, the affect of isospin on nuclear reactions has been studied intensively. Among the affects that have been observed to affect reactions are neutron number and size of the reaction system. In this thesis work the focus was on systems of constant mass but varying neutron to proton ratio. The three main reaction systems that were studied were the following: ⁵⁸Fe + ⁵⁸Fe, ⁵⁸Fe + ⁵⁸Ni, ⁵⁸Ni + ⁵⁸Ni, at energies of 35 and 45 MeV. The reaction was carried out at the Texas A&M University Cyclotron Institute. Differing beams of the above materials were created and impinged on the different targets. The resulting fragments were detected in combinations of cesium iodide detectors, silicon detectors and the neutron ball. Some of the observables that were studied from these different reactions were neutron and charged particle multiplicities and information on the isotopic composition of the fragments. The data show that the neutron multiplicity increases with increasing neutron to proton ratios. The isotopic distribution was also shown to depend on the neutron multiplicity of the reaction, the angle of detection, and the energy of the incident beam.