A theoretical study on the ground and low-energy magnetic dipole characteristics of Pu-239 nucleus

Abstract

A microscopic model analysis of the magnetic dipole (M1) properties of Pu-239 nucleus, which is a fissile material not only used in nuclear weapons but also used in some nuclear reactors as a source of energy, has been performed. The microscopic formalism used in the study is based on the Quasiparticle Phonon Nuclear Model (QPNM) and includes an axially symmetric Woods-Saxon potential as a mean field, a spin-spin residual interaction as well as the symmetry-restoring forces for the rotational invariance of the Hamiltonian. The investigations have been carried out in two steps. Firstly, the theoretical value of the ground-state magnetic moment and quenching spin gyromagnetic factor have been determined and it has been found that the predicted magnetic moment show a good agreement with the experimental data. Secondly, the calculations of M1 transitions from ground- to excited-states have been carried out in the energy range 2-4 MeV. A satisfactorily good agreement is obtained from the comparison of the theoretical results with the experimental data for 2-2.5 MeV. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.