Gold-197 captures a neutron. Its cross section is the yardstick: most stellar neutron-capture cross sections are measured relative to it.
Counting the neutrons that hit a sample is hard. It is much easier to put a thin gold foil beside the sample and compare how many captures happen in each. Gold has a single stable isotope, and the product, gold-198, is radioactive with a convenient half-life of a few days, so its captures can be counted afterwards by its γ-rays. Every measurement made in this way inherits the uncertainty of the gold cross section, which is why it has been measured again and again.
Facts
- How well known
- Known to a few per cent, and used as the yardstick for most other captures; the main open point was a 5% difference between two kinds of measurement.
- Live evaluation
- No live evaluation yet · Evaluations
- Reaction rates
- Explore the rates →
- Q-value · energy released
- 6.512 MeV
- Thermal energy kT
- about 8–23 keV, the energy of a gas at 90–270 million kelvin
By stellar site
- 7.8 keVAGB 13C pocket, 90 MK
- 23 keVAGB thermal pulse, 0.27 GK
- Why no Gamow window
- A neutron feels no Coulomb barrier, so there is no Gamow window: the relevant energies are those of the thermal distribution itself, around kT.
- Product 198Au
- radioactive, t½ = 2.69 d
- Kind
- Radiative capture
How it was measured
3 measurements, 1988–2014Show the listHide the list
1988
Karlsruhe Van de GraaffKernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Activation · quasi-Maxwellian kT = 25 keV (E(p) = 1912 keV)
648 ± 10 mb at kT = 25 keV; 582 ± 9 mb extrapolated to 30 keV, the reference for stellar capture measurements. [1]
2011
n_TOF, CERNCERN
Neutron beams and time of flight · 5–400 keV (neutron energy)
C6D6 detectors, total uncertainty 3.9–6.7%; MACS at 30 keV 4.7% above the activation value and in agreement with ENDF/B-VII.0. [2]
2014
GELINA, GeelJoint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission
Neutron beams and time of flight · 3.5–84 keV (neutron energy)
Two C6D6 detectors at about 13 m, total energy method, normalized to the 4.9 eV resonance; more than 5% from the astrophysical reference. [3]
Measurements (EXFOR)
Every dataset EXFOR holds for this reaction, drawn by the energies it covers, against the energies a star uses.
278 datasets in 187 EXFOR entries, 1938–2024 · 79 without an energy range, not drawn
- Lowest energy in EXFOR
- 1.78 meV
- Havens Jr et al., 1956; TATTERSALL et al., 1960; Teutsch et al., 1962; HADDAD et al., 1964; Als-Nielsen et al., 1964; Konks et al., 1964; Lu Hanlin et al., 1965; FRIESENHAHN et al., 1968; Samour et al., 1969; Pavlenko et al., 1976; CARTER et al., 1980; MEADOWS et al., 1982; ALLEN et al., 1987; YAMAMOTO et al., 1991; Celenk et al., 1991; YAMAMOTO et al., 1996; Revay et al., 2003; Massimi et al., 2010; Nyarko et al., 2010; Xin-Rong Hu et al., 2021; Luo Hao-Tian et al., 2024 · σ · 12674.002
- Maxwellian averages measured
- 20 sets
- kT from 25.3 meV to 1.42 MeV
- Rate from energies not in EXFOR
- < 0.01%
- at kT = 7.76 keV, smooth estimate
- Energies that matter at kT = 7.76 keV
- Outlined bars are shown but not counted (the rule is under “How these numbers are made”).
- A diamond is a dataset at a single energy. Bars running off the right edge continue to higher energies.
The datasets of the gap map, by quantity
| Quantity | Datasets | E_cm range (keV) |
|---|---|---|
| σcross section | 121 | 0.0291 meV – 14.6 MeV |
| σ→Eₓpartial | 3 | 25.2 meV – 1.33 MeV |
| ωγresonance strength | 20 | 4.88 eV – 208 keV |
| MACSMaxwellian average | 20 | 25.3 meV – 1.42 MeV |
| …other | 35 | 24.9 meV – 13.9 MeV |
How these numbers are made
Lowest measured energy, everywhere in the data explorer: the lowest centre-of-mass energy at which a dataset in EXFOR measures the reaction itself (cross section, S-factor, angular distribution, yield or resonance strength), judged point by point. A point counts when it is a value, not an upper or lower limit, when it lies at least one standard deviation above zero, and when its energy is physical: at least 1 keV for charged particles, and not below the threshold of an endothermic reaction. Not counted: extrapolated, calculated, evaluated or derived values; superseded, deleted or preliminary data; ratios; a single S-factor value, which in EXFOR is a fit result; and indirect methods (Trojan horse, Coulomb dissociation, ANC, surrogate reactions), recognized from EXFOR's method and analysis codes, their text and the title. Frame and unit errors of EXFOR are corrected first, and values the literature shows to be upper limits are read as limits, from a list that gives the evidence for each. Datasets that reach the same energy within 0.5% are all credited, earliest first. Rate from energies not in EXFOR: the share of the rate integrand at that temperature outside the energy ranges the counted datasets cover (from their lowest measured point to their highest), with a constant S-factor (σ ∝ S(E₀)/E · e^−2πη, so the integrand is e^(−E/kT − 2πη)); for a neutron capture, σ ∝ 1/v. Resonances make the real integrand lumpy, so read it as a smooth baseline.
Details
How well known, in detail: Known to a few per cent; a difference of about 5% between the 1988 activation reference and later time-of-flight data and evaluations has been the main open point.
Ratynski and Käppeler (1988) activated gold in the quasi-Maxwellian neutron spectrum of 7Li(p,n)7Be at E(p) = 1912 keV, with the integrated flux from the 7Be activity of the target: 648 ± 10 mb at kT = 25 keV, and 582 ± 9 mb when extrapolated to kT = 30 keV, the value adopted as the astrophysical reference. Time-of-flight data later pointed to a slightly higher value: at n_TOF, 5–400 keV with C6D6 detectors and a total uncertainty of 3.9–6.7%, the MACS at 30 keV agrees with ENDF/B-VII.0 and is 4.7% above the activation value (Lederer et al. 2011); at GELINA, 3.5–84 keV normalized to the saturated 4.9 eV resonance, the results differ by more than 5% from the astrophysical reference (Massimi et al. 2014). The 2017 evaluation of the IAEA neutron data standards then adopted the Maxwellian-averaged cross section at kT = 30 keV as a standard in its own right, 620 ± 11 mb (Carlson et al. 2018), 6.5% above the 1988 reference.
Evaluations
Compilations that combine the data into a recommended rate.
Related reactions
References
- 1.
W. Ratynski, F. Käppeler
Neutron capture cross section of 197Au: a standard for stellar nucleosynthesis
Phys. Rev. C 37, 595 (1988) · 10.1103/PhysRevC.37.595
- 2.
C. Lederer et al. (n_TOF Collaboration)
197Au(n,γ) cross section in the unresolved resonance region
Phys. Rev. C 83, 034608 (2011) · 10.1103/PhysRevC.83.034608
- 3.
C. Massimi, B. Becker, E. Dupont, S. Kopecky, C. Lampoudis, R. Massarczyk, M. Moxon, V. Pronyaev, P. Schillebeeckx, I. Sirakov, R. Wynants
Neutron capture cross section measurements for 197Au from 3.5 to 84 keV at GELINA
Eur. Phys. J. A 50, 124 (2014) · 10.1140/epja/i2014-14124-8
- 4.
A. D. Carlson et al.
Evaluation of the neutron data standards
Nucl. Data Sheets 148, 143 (2018) · 10.1016/j.nds.2018.02.002
- 5.
Z. Y. Bao, H. Beer, F. Käppeler, F. Voss, K. Wisshak, T. Rauscher
Neutron cross sections for nucleosynthesis studies
At. Data Nucl. Data Tables 76, 70 (2000) · 10.1006/adnd.2000.0838
- 6.
I. Dillmann, T. Szücs, R. Plag, Z. Fülöp, F. Käppeler, A. Mengoni, T. Rauscher
The Karlsruhe Astrophysical Database of Nucleosynthesis in Stars project – status and prospects
Nucl. Data Sheets 120, 171 (2014) · arXiv:1408.3688
- 7.
I. Dillmann et al.
Proc. Int. Conf. on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology 2007 (EDP Sciences, 2008), p. 575 (2008) · 10.1051/ndata:07303 · arXiv:0806.2076
How to cite this page
J. Skowronski, 197Au(n,γ)198Au, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/197Au-ng-198Au.
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