Excitation function for α-particle-induced reactions in light-mass nuclei

Abstract

The excitation functions of 51V [(α, xn), x = 1.3; (α, p3n); (α, α3n) (α, 2α)] and 59Co[(α, 2n); (α, αxn); x = 1, 2] reactions were measured up to 50 MeV by the stacked-foil activation technique and high-resolution Ce(Li)–HPGe spectroscopy method. Of these 51V(α, xnypzα) reactions were studied for the first time with better accuracy than earlier measurements, which were done with a poor resolution scintillation–Ge(Li) detectors some 20 years ago. In the case of 59Co, existing data show large discrepancies at low energy. Comparisons are presented with the prediction of hybrid and exciton models. While for the (α, xn) type of reactions, reasonably explainable pre-equilibrium contributions are found, there seem to be indications of direct inelastic scattering effects in the (α, αxn) type of reactions.