Impact of the decay width in Breit-Wigner formula on Maxwellian-averaged cross section for neutron capture on ¹⁶O

Abstract

Neutron capture on 16O may serve as a crucial neutron poison reaction in weak s-process occurred in massive stars. In our previous study [Zhang, S. S., Xu, S. Z., He, M. et al. Eur. Phys. J. A 57, 114 (2021)], we found that the contribution from low-lying resonances to Maxwellian-averaged cross section (MACS) progressively increases as the energy goes beyond 70 keV. In Breit-Wigner formula for resonant cross section, the decay width is a decisive quantity. In this paper, we discuss the impact of three kinds of decay widths, i.e. a constant width and two energy-dependent widths, on reaction cross sections and MACSs. The penetration factor adopts semi-classical WKB approximation and the asymptotic solution, respectively. We clarify that energy-dependent width are necessary for a reasonable behavior of resonance cross section around resonance peak and low-energy region far from the peak. The difference of two energy-dependent widths decreases from 3.7 to 1.5 with the energy increasing from 0.01 keV to 1000 keV. It results in similar behavior of resonance cross sections, but a slight difference by 1% for MACSs when E > 50 keV.