Excitation functions for natAg(α,x) reactions with detailed covariance analysis

Abstract

Natural silver targets were irradiated using an alpha particle beam to measure the activation cross sections of radioisotopes within the energy range of 23–40 MeV. The newly obtained cross section data, compared with previous experimental results, underline the importance of this work in the context of nuclear reactions and medical applications. Alpha particle induced reaction with ${}^{nat}$Ag involved the production of radioisotopes such as ¹¹¹In, ¹⁰⁵Ag, ${}^{106m}$Ag. In this study, we focused on calculating correlation matrices for the ${}^{nat}$Ag(α,x) nuclear reactions. These matrices were generated by considering various interconnected variables, such as decay constants, particle number densities, γ-ray intensities and detector efficiencies for both monitor and sample nuclear reaction products.