Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2025) 140: 38
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05955-w

Regular Article

Study of the uncertainty quantification of the $_{}^{121}$Sb($n,\gamma$)$_{}^{122}$Sb reaction

¹ Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, 221005, Varanasi, India
² Department of Physics, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 390002, Vadodara, India
³ Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 400085, Mumbai, India
⁴ Health Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 400085, Mumbai, India
⁵ Department of Physics, Mizoram University, 796004, Tanhril, Aizawl, India
⁶ Department of Electrical Power Engineering, Brno University of Technology, 61600, Brno, Czech Republic
⁷ Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering - IFIN-HH, 077125, Bucharest, Romania

^a ajaytyagi@bhu.ac.in

Received: 4 October 2024
Accepted: 28 December 2024
Published online: 15 January 2025

Abstract

The reaction cross-sections for the $_{}^{121}$Sb($n,\gamma$)$_{}^{122}$Sb reaction were determined at 1.66, 2.65, and 3.05 MeV. The experiment was conducted using the neutron activation technique followed by the offline $\gamma$-ray spectrometry. The neutrons were generated using the $_{}^7$Li(${p,n)}^7$Be reaction, and the reaction cross-section for $_{}^{121}$Sb($n,\gamma$)$_{}^{122}$Sb was measured with respect to the $_{}^{115}$In($n,n^{\prime }\gamma$)$_{}^{115}$In$_{}^m$ monitor reaction cross-section. Wood–Saxon phenomenological optical model potentials (OMP) were used to calculate the uncertainties of the theoretical calculation for the $_{}^{121}$Sb($n,\gamma$)$_{}^{122}$Sb reaction cross-section. The measured reaction cross-section data are compared to the existing data available in the EXFOR database. Additionally, the data are compared to the evaluated data from ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.1/A. TALYS-1.96 nuclear code is used for the theoretical calculations. The measured cross-sections are given along with their uncertainties and covariance matrices. In this work, the theoretical cross-section uncertainties have been estimated using the uncertainties in the level density and optical model parameters.