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The performance of nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems depends on a precise understanding of the neutron interaction cross sections for materials used in these systems. These cross sections exhibit resonant structure whose shape is determined in part by the angular momentum quantum numbers of the resonances. The correct assignment of the quantum numbers of neutron resonances is, therefore, paramount. In this project, we apply machine learning to automate the quantum number assignments using only the resonances' energies and widths and not relying on detailed transmission or capture measurements. The classifier used for quantum number assignment is trained using stochastically generated resonance sequences whose distributions mimic those of real data. We explore the use of several physics-motivated features for training our classifier. These features amount to out-of-distribution tests of a given resonance's widths and resonance-pair spacings. We pay special attention to situations where either capture widths cannot be trusted for classification purposes or where there is insufficient information to classify resonances by the total spin $J$. We demonstrate the efficacy of our classification approach using simulated and actual $^{52}$Cr resonance data., Comment: 22 pages, 5 tables, 13 figures. Version resubmitted to PRC after comments from referee (including bug fix) and accepted for publication

The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory uses $^{86}$Kr as a diagnostic tool to measure the neutron flux produced by fusion reactions. As krypton is chemically inert, it can be implanted directly into the fuel capsule, and the reaction products can be measured to determine the flux of fusion neutrons. $^{86}$Kr cross sections also provide model constraints for the $^{85}$Kr branching point in the s-process and the neutron flux in stars. In this work, experimental data on the neutron production, radiative capture, inelastic scattering, and total cross sections of $^{86}$Kr were used in conjunction with the fast region nuclear reaction code EMPIRE and a new resonance-region evaluation to produce a new evaluation of neutron-induced reactions on $^{86}$Kr. For the EMPIRE calculations, we fitted the optical model potential up to 12 MeV to simultaneously reproduce the experimental data for the total cross section and the main inelastic gamma transition from the $2^+$ state to the $0^+$ ground state. For energies above 12 MeV, due to large fluctuations and uncertainties in the total cross section data, we preferred to adopt the Koning-Delaroche global spherical optical model potential. With these models and corrections to the structure of $^{86}$Kr, the evaluated cross sections matched the experimental data. The new evaluation has been submitted for incorporation in the next release of the ENDF/B nuclear reaction library.

Neutron reaction data for the set of major chromium isotopes were reevaluated from the thermal energy range up to 20 MeV. In the low energy region, updates to the thermal values together with an improved $R$-matrix analysis of the resonance parameters characterizing the cluster of large $s$-wave resonances for $^{50,53}$Cr isotopes were performed. In the intermediate and high energy range up to 20 MeV, the evaluation methodology used statistical nuclear reaction models implemented in the EMPIRE code within the Hauser-Feshbach framework to evaluate the reaction cross sections and angular distributions. Exceptionally, experimental data were used to evaluate relevant cross sections above the resonance region up to 5 MeV in the major $^{52}$Cr isotope. Evaluations were benchmarked with Monte Carlo simulations of a small suite of critical assemblies highly sensitive to Chromium data, and with the Oktavian shielding benchmark to judge deep penetration performance with a 14-MeV D-T neutron source. A significant improvement in performance is demonstrated compared to existing evaluations., Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Data Sheets. 41 pages, 44 Figures, 13 Tables

The adopted level densities (LD) for the nuclei produced through different reaction mechanisms significantly impact the calculation of cross sections for the many reaction channels. Common LD models make simplified assumptions regarding the overall behavior of the total LD and the intrinsic spin and parity distributions of the excited states. However, very few experimental constraints are taken into account: LD at neutron separation energy coming from average resonance spacings, whenever they have been previously measured, and the sometimes subjective extrapolation of discrete levels. These, however, constrain the LD only for very specific spins, parities and excitation energies. This work aims to establish additional experimental constraints on LD through quantitative correlations between cross sections and LD. This allows for the fitting and determination of detailed structures in LD. For this we use the microscopic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) LD to associate variations predicted by the model with the structure observed in double-differential spectra at low outgoing neutron energy, which is dominated by the LD input. We also use \nuc{56}{Fe} ($n,p$) as an example cross sections are extremely sensitive to LD. For comparison purposes we also perform calculations with the GC model. With this approach we are able to perform fits of the LD based on actual experimental data, constraining the model and ensuring its consistency. This approach can be particularly useful in extrapolating the LD to nuclei for which high-excited discrete levels and/or resonance spacings are unknown. It also predicts inelastic gamma cross sections that can significantly differ from more standard phenomenological LD., Comment: 16 pages, 12 Figures. Accepted by PRC

Several models of level densities exist and they often make simplified assumptions regarding the overall behavior of the total level densities (LD) and the intrinsic spin and parity distributions of the excited states. Normally, such LD models are constrained only by the measured $D_0$, i.e. the density of levels at the neutron separation energy of the compound nucleus (target plus neutron), and the sometimes subjective extrapolation of discrete levels. In this work we use microscopic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) level densities, which intrinsically provide more realistic spin and parity distributions, and associate variations predicted by the HFB model with the observed double-differential cross sections at low outgoing neutron energy, region that is dominated by the LD input. With this approach we are able to perform fits of the LD based on actual experimental data, constraining the model and ensuring its consistency. This approach can be particularly useful in extrapolating the LD to nuclei for which high-excited discrete levels and/or values of $D_0$ are unknown. It also predicts inelastic gamma (n,n$^{\prime}\gamma$) cross sections that in some cases can differ significantly from more standard LD models such as Gilbert-Cameron., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the proceedings of the CNR*18 conference

The coupled-channel theory is a natural way of treating nonelastic channels, in particular those arising from collective excitations characterized by nuclear deformations. A proper treatment of such excitations is often essential to the accurate description of experimental nuclear-reaction data and to the prediction of a wide variety of scattering observables. Stimulated by recent work substantiating the near validity of the adiabatic approximation in coupled-channel calculations for scattering on statically deformed nuclei, we explore the possibility of generalizing a global spherical optical model potential (OMP) to make it usable in coupled-channel calculations on this class of nuclei. To do this, we have deformed the Koning-Delaroche global spherical potential for neutrons, coupling a sufficient number of states of the ground state band to ensure convergence. We present an extensive study of the effects of collective couplings and nuclear deformations on integrated cross sections as well as on angular distributions for neutron-induced reactions on statically deformed nuclei in the rare-earth region. We choose isotopes of three rare-earth elements (Gd, Ho, W), which are known to be nearly perfect rotors, to exemplify the results of the proposed method. Predictions from our model for total, elastic and inelastic cross sections, as well as for elastic and inelastic angular distributions, are in reasonable agreement with measured experimental data. These results suggest that the deformed Koning-Delaroche potential provides a useful regional neutron optical potential for the statically deformed rare earth nuclei., Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Version to be submitted to Physical Review C

The coupled-channel theory is a natural way of treating nonelastic channels, in particular those arising from collective excitations, defined by nuclear deformations. Proper treatment of such excitations is often essential to the accurate description of reaction experimental data. Previous works have applied different models to specific nuclei with the purpose of determining angular-integrated cross sections. In this work, we present an extensive study of the effects of collective couplings and nuclear deformations on integrated cross sections as well as on angular distributions in a consistent manner for neutron-induced reactions on nuclei in the rare-earth region. This specific subset of the nuclide chart was chosen precisely because of a clear static deformation pattern. We analyze the convergence of the coupled-channel calculations regarding the number of states being explicitly coupled. Inspired by the work done by Dietrich \emph{et al.}, a model for deforming the spherical Koning-Delaroche optical potential as function of quadrupole and hexadecupole deformations is also proposed. We demonstrate that the obtained results of calculations for total, elastic and inelastic cross sections, as well as elastic and inelastic angular distributions correspond to a remarkably good agreement with experimental data for scattering energies above around a few MeV., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to the proceedings of the XXXVI Reuni\~ao de Trabalho de F\'{\i}sica Nuclear no Brasil (XXXVI Brazilian Workshop on Nuclear Physics), held in Maresias, S\~ao Paulo, Brazil in September 2013, which should be published on AIP Conference Proceeding Series. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1311.1115, arXiv:1311.0426

Inspired by the recent work by Dietrich et al., substantiating validity of the adiabatic assumption in coupled-channel calculations, we explore the possibility of generalizing a global spherical optical model potential (OMP) to make it usable in coupled-channel calculations on statically deformed nuclei. The generalization consists in adding the coupling of the ground state rotational band, deforming the potential by introducing appropriate quadrupole and hexadecupole deformation and correcting the OMP radius to preserve volume integral of the spherical OMP. We choose isotopes of three rare-earth elements (W, Ho, Gd), which are known to be nearly perfect rotors, to perform a consistent test of our conjecture on integrated cross sections as well as on angular distributions for elastic and inelastic neutron scattering. When doing this we employ the well-established Koning-Delaroche global spherical potential and experimentally determined deformations without any adjustments. We observe a dramatically improved agreement with experimental data compared to spherical optical model calculations. The effect of changing the OMP radius to preserve volume integral is moderate but visibly improves agreement at lower incident energies. We find that seven collective states need to be considered for the coupled-channel calculations to converge. Our results for total, elastic, inelastic, and capture cross sections, as well as elastic and inelastic angular distributions are in remarkable agreement with experimental data. This result confirms that the adiabatic assumption holds and can extend applicability of the global spherical OMP to rotational nuclei in the rare-earth region, essentially without any free parameter. Thus, quite reliable coupled-channel calculations can be performed on such nuclei even when the experimental data, and consequently a specific coupled-channel potential, are not available., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Paper submitted as proceeding for CNR2013 conference, held in Maresias, S\~ao Paulo, Brazil in 2013

We present an outline of an extensive study of the effects of collective couplings and nuclear deformations on integrated cross sections as well as on angular distributions in a consistent manner for neutron-induced reactions on nuclei in the rare-earth region. This specific subset of the nuclide chart was chosen precisely because of a clear static deformation pattern. We analyze the convergence of the coupled-channel calculations regarding the number of states being explicitly coupled. A model for deforming the spherical Koning-Delaroche optical potential as function of quadrupole and hexadecupole deformations is also proposed, inspired by previous works. We demonstrate that the obtained results of calculations for total, elastic, inelastic, and capture cross sections, as well as elastic and inelastic angular distributions are in remarkably good agreement with experimental data for scattering energies around a few MeV., Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Nuclear Data Sheets (2014)

A microscopic calculation of reaction cross sections for nucleon-nucleus scattering has been performed by explicitly coupling the elastic channel to all particle-hole excitations in the target and one-nucleon pickup channels. The particle-hole states may be regarded as doorway states through which the flux flows to more complicated configurations, and subsequently to long-lived compound nucleus resonances. Target excitations for $^{40,48}$Ca, $^{58}$Ni, $^{90}$Zr and $^{144}$Sm were described in a random-phase framework using a Skyrme functional. Reaction cross sections obtained agree very well with experimental data and predictions of a state-of-the-art fitted optical potential. Couplings between inelastic states were found to be negligible, while the pickup channels contribute significantly. The effect of resonances from higher-order channels was assessed. Elastic angular distributions were also calculated within the same method, achieving good agreement with experimental data. For the first time observed absorptions are completely accounted for by explicit channel coupling, for incident energies between 10 and 70 MeV, with consistent angular distribution results., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Version of paper accepted on December 1, 2011, for publication in Phys. Rev. C, following work on Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 202502 (2010)

A microscopic calculation of the optical potential for nucleon-nucleus scattering has been performed by explicitly coupling the elastic channel to all the particle-hole (p-h) excitation states in the target and to all relevant pickup channels. These p-h states may be regarded as doorway states through which the flux flows to more complicated configurations, and to long-lived compound nucleus resonances. We calculated the reaction cross sections for the nucleon induced reactions on the targets $^{40,48}$Ca, $^{58}$Ni, $^{90}$Zr and $^{144}$Sm using the QRPA description of target excitations, coupling to all inelastic open channels, and coupling to all transfer channels corresponding to the formation of a deuteron. The results of such calculations were compared to predictions of a well-established optical potential and with experimental data, reaching very good agreement. The inclusion of couplings to pickup channels were an important contribution to the absorption. For the first time, calculations of excitations account for all of the observed reaction cross-sections, at least for incident energies above 10 MeV., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to INPC 2010 Conference Proceedings

A microscopic calculation of the reaction cross-section for nucleon-nucleus scattering has been performed by explicitly coupling the elastic channel to all particle-hole (p-h) excitation states in the target and to all one-nucleon pickup channels. The p-h states may be regarded as doorway states through which the flux flows to more complicated configurations, and subsequently to long-lived compound nucleus resonances. Target excitations for 40,48Ca, 58Ni, 90Zr and 144Sm were described in a QRPA framework using a Skyrme functional. Reaction cross sections calculated in this approach were compared to predictions of a fitted optical potential and to experimental data, reaching very good agreement. Couplings between inelastic states were found to be negligible, while the couplings to pickup channels contribute significantly. For the first time observed reaction cross-sections are completely accounted for by explicit channel coupling, for incident energies between 10 and 40 MeV., Comment: Accepted for publication on Physical Review Letters. Article is expected to be published in the November 12, 2010 issue. 4 pages, 4 figures