Radioactive thallium-204 captures a neutron. It decides how much lead-204, the heaviest nucleus made only by the s-process, the stars make; it was measured for the first time in 2024.
Thallium-204 lives almost four years in the laboratory. If it decays, it becomes lead-204, which the r-process cannot make, so all of it in the Solar System comes from the s-process. If it captures a neutron first, the flow passes to thallium-205 and lead-204 is skipped. The share between the two sets the amount of lead-204, which is used to check how the s-process models share out lead among its isotopes.
Facts
- How well known
- Measured once, in 2024, on nine milligrams of radioactive thallium; known to about 30%.
- Live evaluation
- No live evaluation yet · Evaluations
- Reaction rates
- Explore the rates →
- Q-value · energy released
- 7.546 MeV
- Half-life of 204Tl
- 3.78 yr
- Measured in the laboratory; in a star, thermally excited states and ionization can change it. It decides how often this nucleus decays before it captures a neutron.
- 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.
- Kind
- Radiative capture
On the timeline
How it was measured
1 measurement, 2024Show the listHide the list
2024
n_TOF, CERNCERN
Neutron beams and time of flight · neutron energies up to the keV region
9 mg sample made at the ILL; MACS 580(168) mb at kT ≈ 8 keV and 260(90) mb at kT ≈ 30 keV, with semi-empirical calculations. [1]
Measurements (EXFOR)
Every dataset EXFOR holds for this reaction, drawn by the energies it covers, against the energies a star uses.
3 datasets in 2 EXFOR entries, 2000–2006
- Lowest energy in EXFOR
- No measurement counts
- No dataset here passes the rule for a measurement (“How these numbers are made”).
- Maxwellian averages measured
- 1 sets
- kT from 30 keV to 30 keV
- Rate from energies not in EXFOR
- 100%
- 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 | 1 | 25.2 meV – 25.2 meV |
| MACSMaxwellian average | 1 | 30 keV – 30 keV |
| …other | 1 | 396 eV – 396 eV |
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: One measurement (n_TOF, 2024), with uncertainties of about 30% at the stellar energies; before it, only theory.
The first measurement of 204Tl(n,γ) was made at n_TOF on a 9 mg sample produced at the ILL high-flux reactor. Combined with semi-empirical calculations, it gives a MACS of 580(168) mb at kT ≈ 8 keV and 260(90) mb at kT ≈ 30 keV, about 3% lower and 20% higher than the purely theoretical values used until then (Casanovas-Hoste et al. 2024).
Evaluations
Compilations that combine the data into a recommended rate.
Open questions
Discussed on the open-questions page
Related reactions
References
- 1.
A. Casanovas-Hoste et al. (n_TOF Collaboration)
Shedding light on the origin of 204Pb, the heaviest s-process-only isotope in the Solar System
Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 052702 (2024) · 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.052702
- 2.
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
- 3.
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
- 4.
G. Leckenby et al.
High-temperature 205Tl decay clarifies 205Pb dating in early Solar System
Nature 635, 321 (2024) · 10.1038/s41586-024-08130-4 · arXiv:2411.08856
How to cite this page
J. Skowronski, 204Tl(n,γ)205Tl, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/204Tl-ng-205Tl.
Cite the date you used; it is the last change to this page.
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