Iron-56 captures a neutron. It is the first step of the s-process: almost every heavy nucleus the process makes began as an iron seed.
Of all the nuclei heavier than those that stars burn for energy, iron-56 is by far the most abundant, and it was already present in the gas the star formed from. Neutrons released inside the star are captured one by one, first by iron and then by its heavier products, which climb step by step towards lead. How readily iron captures a neutron sets how many seeds are put on the path; together with the number of neutrons available per seed, it decides how far the s-process goes.
Facts
- How well known
- Measured many times over several decades with neutron beams; newer measurements still refine it.
- Live evaluation
- No live evaluation yet · Evaluations
- Reaction rates
- Explore the rates →
- Q-value · energy released
- 7.646 MeV
- Thermal energy kT
- about 8–90 keV, the energy of a gas at 90–1000 million kelvin
By stellar site
- 7.8 keVAGB 13C pocket, 90 MK
- 23 keVAGB thermal pulse, 0.27 GK
- 26 keVmassive star, core helium burning, 0.3 GK
- 90 keVmassive star, shell carbon burning, 1.04 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
How it was measured
1 measurement, 2014Show the listHide the list
2014
Neutron beams and time of flight · keV neutrons from 7Li(p,n)7Be
Capture cross sections of 56Fe and 57Fe by time of flight; Maxwellian-averaged cross sections derived for both isotopes. [1]
Measurements (EXFOR)
Every dataset EXFOR holds for this reaction, drawn by the energies it covers, against the energies a star uses.
83 datasets in 40 EXFOR entries, 1952–2017 · 29 without an energy range, not drawn
- Lowest energy in EXFOR
- 7.18 meV
- Shcherbakov et al., 1977; Firestone et al., 2017 · σ · 40544.002
- Maxwellian averages measured
- 5 sets
- kT from 5 keV to 75 keV
- 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 | 10 | 7.18 meV – 13.9 MeV |
| σ→Eₓpartial | 1 | 24.9 meV – 24.9 meV |
| dσ/dΩangular distribution | 2 | 8.84 MeV – 19.6 MeV |
| ωγresonance strength | 21 | 42.7 eV – 847 keV |
| MACSMaxwellian average | 5 | 5 keV – 75 keV |
| …other | 15 | 24.9 meV – 540 keV |
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 recommended stellar cross section rests on time-of-flight resonance data collected over several decades and compiled by Bao et al. and KADoNiS; newer measurements refine it.
The stellar rate is given as a Maxwellian-averaged cross section (MACS); the reference compilation of Bao et al. (2000) recommends values at kT = 30 keV, scaled to kT = 5–100 keV, and its successor KADoNiS (Dillmann et al. 2008) updates them. The cross section of the iron isotopes in the keV region is dominated by resolved resonances measured by time of flight. Wang et al. (2014) measured keV-neutron capture on 56Fe and 57Fe by time of flight with a 7Li(p,n)7Be neutron source and derived the MACS of both isotopes. The product 57Fe is stable, as is 58Fe; the chain first meets a radioactive nucleus at 59Fe.
Evaluations
Compilations that combine the data into a recommended rate.
Related reactions
References
- 1.
T.-F. Wang et al.
Maxwellian averaged neutron capture cross sections in 56Fe and 57Fe
Chin. Phys. Lett. 31, 092101 (2014) · 10.1088/0256-307X/31/9/092101
- 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
How to cite this page
J. Skowronski, 56Fe(n,γ)57Fe, in Reaction atlas, 2026-10-12, https://jskowron.eu/atlas/56Fe-ng-57Fe.
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