A Systematic Review on (p,α) Cross Section Data at the Energy of 17.9 MeV

Nuclear cross section data are needed in various applications such as radiation therapy, astrophysics, radioisotope production, fusion and fission. The systematics play a very important role in determining cross sections on neutron- and proton-induced reactions at incoming energies of which there are no experimental values. So, empirical systematics have been extensively used at present in the studies on cross section calculations. In this paper, we proposed empirical cross section formulas considering Q–value dependence on (p,α) reactions at proton energy of 17.9 MeV. The present formulas including Coulomb and odd-even effects are based on the statistical theory. In addition, these formulas are a modification to the Levkovskii’s original asymmetry parameter formulas for neutron induced reactions and the Tel et al.’s empirical formulas for proton reactions. Fitting parameters of formulas were determined by least-squares fitting to experimental excitation function data. It is seen that new empirical formulas give good fits with (p,α) experimental cross section values in the literature at 17.9 MeV.