Neutron Transfer and the Tunneling Mechanism in the Bombardment of Gold by Nitrogen

Measurements have been made of the angular distributions of N¹³ nuclei produced in the neutron-transfer reaction Au¹⁹⁷(N¹⁴,N¹³)Au¹⁹⁸. Fifteen different bombarding energies were studied. It is found that the results can be described in terms of the transfer of a neutron from an N¹⁴ nucleus moving along a classical trajectory. In particular, it is found that N¹⁴ trajectories with distances of closest approach of (12.7±{}0.5)×{}10^-13 cm give the largest contribution to the transfer process. Further, both the angular and energy dependence of the N¹³ production have been compared with the dependences predicted by the tunneling theory of Breit and Ebel; both experimental dependences have been found to be in agreement with this theory.