Nicholas Lightfoot
About
My research project
Neutron capture dynamicsNeutron capture reactions occur in areas of high neutron density most often found in supernova explosions. The understanding of the dynamics of these reactions to create elements larger than Iron through rapid neutron capture reactions is less understood and can give a hint at how elements, such as Osmium, can be formed and how we can use this as to generate a Cosmic clock for the universe.
Supervisors
Neutron capture reactions occur in areas of high neutron density most often found in supernova explosions. The understanding of the dynamics of these reactions to create elements larger than Iron through rapid neutron capture reactions is less understood and can give a hint at how elements, such as Osmium, can be formed and how we can use this as to generate a Cosmic clock for the universe.
Publications
Neutron capture reactions in high-temperature environments play a vital role in our understanding of the age of the universe, as well as the function of nucleosynthesis in the creation of the heavy elements. In general , the temperatures characterizing these reactions are variable and can be split into two separate processes: the slow (s) and rapid (r) neutron capture processes. In this work, thermal effects are introduced at the initialisation of the wave-packet with an implementation of the time-dependent coupled channels wave-packet (TDCCWP) method. The agreement of this method with the already accepted CCFULL method is explored for the n+ 186Os reaction. Then, a comparison of thermally dependent cross sections are made, where a decrease in the cross section is found for an increasing temperature, along with a decrease of 19% in the reaction rate when a temperature-dependent cross section is used.