Speaker
Description
Nuclear level densities (NLD) and $\gamma$-ray strength functions (GSF) are fundamental statistical properties that govern compound-nucleus decay and are essential inputs for reaction modeling in nuclear astrophysics and other applications. Within the Oslo method, these quantities are extracted from particle–$\gamma$ coincidence measurements and are, in principle, assumed to be independent of the specific reaction mechanism, apart from the spin distribution populated in the compound nucleus.
In this work, we investigate possible spin dependence of the NLD and GSF in 154Sm by comparing results obtained from proton inelastic scattering,$^{154}$Sm(p,p$'\gamma$), and alpha inelastic scattering, $^{154}$Sm($\alpha,\alpha'\gamma)$. These two reactions are expected to populate different spin distributions, with alpha scattering generally favoring higher spin states than proton scattering at comparable excitation energies.
In this work, the particle–$\gamma$ coincidence data for both reactions are analyzed using the Oslo method to extract first-generation $\gamma$-ray matrices, from which the functional forms of the NLD and GSF were simultaneously determined. By comparing the normalized NLDs and GSFs from the two reactions, we assess the degree to which these quantities depend on the initial spin population. In this talk, we will discuss our preliminary results.