The 12C([alpha], n)15O and 16O([alpha], n)19Ne reactions at E[alpha] = 41 MeV

Abstract

Spectra and neutron angular distributions have been obtained for the ([alpha], n) reaction on 12C and 16O to (a) determine whether with this reaction more detailed spectroscopic information can be extracted than from heavy-ion induced 3He transfer reactions, and (b) to compare the results obtained for ([alpha], n) with those from the ([alpha], p) reaction on the same target nuclei. The results indicate that the same states are populated in ([alpha], n) as in the heavy-ion induced reactions; and that the ([alpha], n) results agree with expectations based on the ([alpha], p) reaction at E[alpha] = 40 MeV. The reactions can be well described as a simple direct transfer of a 3He-like cluster. The fact that the angular distributions show a J-dependence which is reproduced in the spectroscopic calculations provides a promising spectroscopic tool.