Distribution of total radiation widths for neutron resonances of Pt isotopes

Abstract

High quality neutron capture and transmission data were measured on isotopically enriched 192,194,195,196Pt and natural Pt samples at ORELA. R-matrix analysis of this data revealed resonance parameters for 159, 413, 423, 258, and 11 neutron resonances for neutron energies below 5.0, 16.0, 7.5, 16.0, and 5.0 keV for 192,194,195,196,198Pt+n, respectively. Earlier analysis of data on reduced neutron widths, Γ0n, showed that the distributions of Γ0n for 192,194Pt deviate significantly from the Porter-Thomas distribution (PTD) predicted by random matrix theory. In this contribution we report on preliminary results of the analysis of distribution of total radiation widths, Γγ, in 192,194,195,196Pt+n reactions. Comparison of experimental data with predictions made within the nuclear statistical model indicates that standard models of Photon Strength Functions (PSFs) and Nuclear Level Density predict Γγ distributions which are too narrow. We found that satisfactory agreement between experimental and simulated distributions can be obtained only by a strong suppression of the PSFs at low γ-ray energies and/or by violation of the usual assumption that primary transitions from neutron resonances follow the PTD. The shape of PSFs needed for reproduction of our Γγ data also nicely reproduces spectra from several (n,γ) experiments on the neighbor nuclide 198Au.