Exploitation of surrogate reaction method for deriving proton induced fission cross sections of short lived actinides

Abstract

In this article we have explored the possibility of measuring the proton induced fission cross sections using surrogate reaction method. To establish the validity of the surrogate method, we have derived the cross sections for 240Pu(p, f), 234Th(p, f), 236U(p, f) and 233Th(p, f) reactions using the derived cross section data of 240Am(n, f), 234Pa(n, f), 236Np(n, f) and 233Pa(n, f) reactions, which were measured by the surrogate ratio method. To extract the data, we have used the independence hypothesis of compound nucleus formation and derived a relation between proton and neutron induced fission cross sections of the consecutive isobars. The validity of the Weisskopf–Ewing approximation has been studied in detail. This study successfully confirms that the surrogate ratio method can be used to derive (p, f) cross sections of the short lived actinides. It is also concluded that a common surrogate reaction can be used for the determination of (n, f) and (p, f) cross sections for the consecutive isobars.