Bismuth-209 captures a neutron. It is the end of the s-process: what follows decays back to lead, and the path closes into a cycle.
Bismuth-209 is the heaviest nucleus the s-process reaches. When it captures a neutron it becomes bismuth-210, in one of two forms. The ground state decays within days to polonium-210, which emits an alpha particle and becomes lead-206; a long-lived excited form, the isomer, also ends as lead-206, through an alpha decay to thallium-206. The neutrons that reach bismuth therefore keep cycling through lead and bismuth instead of building anything heavier. The cross section decides how much of the bismuth in the Solar System the s-process made, and so how much is left for the rapid r-process to explain.
Facts
- How well known
- Measured with neutron beams; a 2006 measurement at CERN raised the rate at the lowest stellar temperatures by about 16%.
- Live evaluation
- No live evaluation yet · Evaluations
- Reaction rates
- Explore the rates →
- Q-value · energy released
- 4.605 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 210Bi
- radioactive, t½ = 5.01 d
- Kind
- Radiative capture
On the timeline
How it was measured
2 measurements, 2004–2006Show the listHide the list
2004
Karlsruhe Van de GraaffKernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Activation · quasi-Maxwellian kT = 25 keV
Stellar cross sections of 208Pb and 209Bi at the end of the path; the partial cross section to the 210Bi ground state, which feeds 210Po. [1]
2006
n_TOF, CERNCERN
Neutron beams and time of flight · resolved resonances (neutron energy)
Pulse-height weighting with low neutron sensitivity; rate at kT = 5–8 keV about 16% higher; s fraction of solar Bi 19 ± 3%. [2]
Measurements (EXFOR)
Every dataset EXFOR holds for this reaction, drawn by the energies it covers, against the energies a star uses.
148 datasets in 50 EXFOR entries, 1945–2023 · 54 without an energy range, not drawn
- Lowest energy in EXFOR
- 25.2 meV
- TATTERSALL et al., 1960; Revay et al., 2003; Revay et al., 2005; Borella et al., 2011; Al-Khasawneh et al., 2021; Shor et al., 2022 · σ · 20638.065
- Maxwellian averages measured
- 28 sets
- kT from 5 keV to 50 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 | 25 | 25.2 meV – 14.7 MeV |
| σ→Eₓpartial | 4 | 25.2 meV – 25.2 meV |
| dσ/dΩangular distribution | 1 | 4.68 MeV – 8.26 MeV |
| ωγresonance strength | 1 | 49.8 keV – 49.8 keV |
| MACSMaxwellian average | 28 | 5 keV – 50 keV |
| …other | 35 | 0.524 meV – 14 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: The resonance data were revised at n_TOF in 2006, raising the stellar rate at low temperatures by about 16%.
Capture on 209Bi feeds both the 5.0 d ground state of 210Bi, which β−-decays to 210Po, and a long-lived isomer (t½ ≈ 3 × 106 yr in the laboratory). Activation at Karlsruhe measured the stellar cross sections of 208Pb and 209Bi at the termination of the path and the partial cross section to the ground state (Ratzel et al. 2004). Both states close the cycle at 206Pb: the ground state through 210Po (138 d) and its α decay, the 271 keV isomer through its own α decay to 206Tl and β− decay to 206Pb.
Both branch: 210Po can capture a neutron (211Po → 207Pb), and capture on the isomer gives 211Bi (α, 2.14 min → 207Tl → 207Pb), so part of the cycle leaks to 207Pb, by an amount that depends on the neutron density and the temperature (Domingo-Pardo et al. 2006). 209Bi itself is only quasi-stable: it α-decays with t½ ≈ 2 × 1019 yr. The capture resonances of 209Bi were measured at n_TOF with the pulse-height weighting technique, with a set-up of practically negligible neutron sensitivity.
In the stellar range kT = 5–8 keV the new rate is about 16% higher than the value used before; the s-process fraction of solar bismuth becomes 19 ± 3%, leaving an r-process residual of 81 ± 3% (Domingo-Pardo et al. 2006).
Evaluations
Compilations that combine the data into a recommended rate.
Related reactions
References
- 1.
U. Ratzel, C. Arlandini, F. Käppeler et al.
Nucleosynthesis at the termination point of the s process
Phys. Rev. C 70, 065803 (2004) · 10.1103/PhysRevC.70.065803
- 2.
C. Domingo-Pardo et al. (n_TOF Collaboration)
New measurement of neutron capture resonances in 209Bi
Phys. Rev. C 74, 025807 (2006) · 10.1103/PhysRevC.74.025807 · arXiv:nucl-ex/0610040
- 3.
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
- 4.
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
- 5.
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, 209Bi(n,γ)210Bi, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/209Bi-ng-210Bi.
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