Capture-Gamma Determination ofV52Levels

Abstract

Thermal-neutron capture-gamma radiations for the ${\mathrm{V}}^{51}(n, \gamma ){\mathrm{V}}^{52*}$ reaction have been observed with a fast-coincidence scintillation spectrometer recently developed for the Livermore 1-Mw pool-type reactor. The added-neutron binding energy in ${\mathrm{V}}^{52}$ was measured as 7.30±0.05 Mev and a decay scheme was established which verifies a previously proposed ${\mathrm{V}}^{51}(d, p){\mathrm{V}}^{52*}$ level scheme. Several low-energy crossover, without stopover, transitions were observed: two from the 0.78-Mev level to the ground and 0.13 levels (the latter being the more intense) but not to the 0.42 level, and one from the 0.83-Mev level to the ground state only. The 0.42-Mev level makes both crossover and stopover transitions to the ground and 0.13-Mev levels (the former being the stronger). Some evidence exists to suggest that the low-lying ${\mathrm{V}}^{52*}$ states arise from excitations of the ${\left(1\mathrm{}{f}_{\frac{7}{2}}\right)}^3$ proton configuration alone.