Thermal-neutron capture gamma rays from natural calcium

Abstract

Gamma rays from thermal-neutron capture in natural Ca and enriched 40Ca were investigated with a 5 cm3 Ge(Li) detector. Many low-energy γ-lines have been found. More than 90% of the γ-rays result from capture in 40Ca and about 5% from capture in 44Ca. From the data a decay scheme of 41Ca and a partial decay scheme of 45Ca were constructed. The Q-values for the reactions 40Ca(n, γ)41Ca and 44Ca(n, γ)45Ca were determined as Q = 8363.4±1.0 and 7418.1±3.0 keV,respectively.

In 41Ca, it is found that hole states preferentially decay to hole states, and single-particle states to single-particle states.