https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2017-12321-7
Letter to the Editor
Two-step nuclear reactions: The Surrogate Method, the Trojan Horse Method and their common foundations
1
Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, DCTA, 12.228-900, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
2
Instituto de Estudos Avançados, Universidade de São Paulo, C. P. 72012, 05508-970, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
3
Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, C. P. 66318, 05314-970, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
* e-mail: hussein@if.usp.br
Received:
30
April
2017
Accepted:
16
May
2017
Published online:
26
May
2017
In this Letter I argue that the Surrogate Method, used to extract the fast neutron capture cross section on actinide target nuclei, which has important practical application for the next generation of breeder reactors, and the Trojan Horse Method employed to extract reactions of importance to nuclear astrophysics, have a common foundation, the Inclusive Non-Elastic Breakup (INEB) Theory. Whereas the Surrogate Method relies on the premise that the extracted neutron cross section in a (d, p) reaction is predominantly a compound-nucleus one, the Trojan Horse Method assumes a predominantly direct process for the secondary reaction induced by the surrogate fragment. In general, both methods contain both direct and compound contributions, and I show how these seemingly distinct methods are in fact the same but at different energies and different kinematic regions. The unifying theory is the rather well developed INEB theory.
© The Author(s), 2017
