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The 7 Li+ 28 Si elastic scattering was studied at near-barrier energies, namely, 8, 8.5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, and 16 MeV, with the aim to map the real and imaginary part of the optical potential and therefore probe the threshold anomaly. Angular distributions were measured over a wide angular range of ( lab = 25°to 150°) for the lower energies and of ( lab = 10°to 100°) for the higher energies. The present data, together with previous ones on heavier targets ( 138 Ba and 208 Pb) at near barrier energies, were analyzed by using optical potentials obtained in a double-folding framework. The results were compared with previous measurements of 6 Li on the same targets. It was found that a striking difference occurs between the imaginary potentials of 6 Li and 7 Li, which, respectively, present an increasing and decreasing behavior approaching the barrier from higher to lower energies. On the other hand, this energy variation is not fully reflected to the real part of the potential, as it is described by dispersion relations. The strength of the real potential remains almost constant with a weak declining and uprising trend for the 6 Li and 7 Li, respectively. For a better understanding of our results, continuum-discretized-coupled-channel calculations were also performed and are discussed.

Abstract. The neutron time-of-flight facility n TOF features a white neutron source produced by spallation through 20 GeV/c protons impinging on a lead target. The facility, aiming primarily at the measurement of neutron-induced reaction cross sections, was operating at CERN between 2001 and 2004, and then underwent a major upgrade in 2008. This paper presents in detail all the characteristics of the new neutron beam in the currently available configurations, which correspond to two different collimation systems and two choices of neutron moderator. The characteristics discussed include the intensity and energy dependence of the neutron flux, the spatial profile of the beam, the in-beam background components and the energy resolution/broadening. The discussion of these features is based on dedicated measurements and Monte Carlo simulations, and includes estimations of the systematic uncertainties of the mentioned quantities.

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We report on the measurement of the ^{7}Be(n,p)^{7}Li cross section from thermal to approximately 325 keV neutron energy, performed in the high-flux experimental area (EAR2) of the n_TOF facility at CERN. This reaction plays a key role in the lithium yield of the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) for standard cosmology. The only two previous time-of-flight measurements performed on this reaction did not cover the energy window of interest for BBN, and they showed a large discrepancy between each other. The measurement was performed with a Si telescope and a high-purity sample produced by implantation of a ^{7}Be ion beam at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. While a significantly higher cross section is found at low energy, relative to current evaluations, in the region of BBN interest, the present results are consistent with the values inferred from the time-reversal ^{7}Li(p,n)^{7}Be reaction, thus yielding only a relatively minor improvement on the so-called cosmological lithium problem. The relevance of these results on the near-threshold neutron production in the p+^{7}Li reaction is also discussed.

Exclusive α-particle and proton production measurements of the system 6 Li+ 28 Si are performed at near-barrier energies. Each reaction channel is tagged via a particle-γ coincidence requirement. Ratios of direct to compound contributions are estimated via particle angular distribution measurements. Strong reaction channels for n and p transfer are identified and quantified and found to be described well on a qualitative basis with distorted-wave Born approximation calculations.

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