Photonuclear reactions on mercury isotopes

Abstract

Using the activation method with a bremsstrahlung beam with a maximum energy of 55 MeV, cross sections per equivalent photon and yields of photonuclear reactions on a natural mixture of mercury isotopes were measured. A comparison is presented between the experimentally obtained absolute yields and cross sections per equivalent photon and the results calculated using the combined photonucleon reaction model and the TALYS model. Good agreement for photoproton reactions is achieved when isospin splitting, along with the contributions of the GDR2 overtone, the quadrupole resonance (QR) and the quasi-deuteron mechanism (QD) to the photoabsorption cross section, are taken into account. Additionally, the isomeric ratios IR for ${}^{195m,g}$Hg and ${}^{197m,g}$Hg were investigated in the present work.