EPJ Web of Conferences 178, 04003 (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201817804003

Astrophysical relevance of the low-energy dipole strength of ²⁰⁶Pb

¹ Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
² Duke University, Department of Physics, Box 90308, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0308, USA
³ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Gießen, Gießen, D-35392, Germany
⁴ Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus de la Plaine, CP-226, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
⁵ Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0308, USA
⁶ Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3255, USA
⁸ North Carolina State University, Department of Physics, Box 8202, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8202, USA
⁹ National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4350, USA
¹¹ UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientic Research, Kolkata Centre LB-8 Sector-III, Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700098, India
¹² Quantum Beam Science Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokaimura, Ibaraki 319-1184, Japan

^* Corresponding author: tonchev2@llnl.gov

Published online: 16 May 2018

Abstract

The dipole strength of ²⁰⁶Pb was studied below the neutron separation energy using photon scattering experiments at the HIGS facility. Utilizing the technique of nuclear resonance fluorescence with 100% linearly-polarized photon beams, the spins, parities, branching ratios and decay widths of excited states in ²⁰⁶Pb from 4.9 - 8.1 MeV have been measured. The new experimental information is used to reliably predict the neutron capture cross section of ²⁰⁵Pb, an important branch point nucleus along the s-process path of nucleosynthesis.