Compound nuclear reaction mechanisms of light composite particles

Abstract

We assess the ability of a light-composite breakup model coupled to pre-compound and compound statistical emission models to describe selected compound nuclear cross sections. The framework employed calculates elastic and nonelastic breakup differential cross sections using the post-form distorted wave Born expressions of the Ichimura-Austern-Vincent approach. This has been incorporated into the EMPIRE nuclear reaction code for the specific case of the deuteron, used in the calculations presented here. The exciton preequilibrium and Hauser-Feshbach compound-nucleus models are used to account for pre-equilibrium and equilibrium emission. The outcome of our analyses yields a satisfactory agreement between theoretical and experimental values in most cases. The analysis also permits a preliminary assessment of the importance of inelastic excitation on the cross-section predictions