Experimental determination of Q0 factors and effective resonance energies with a multi-channel approach: the α-vector method

Some of the Q0 and E¯ r factors from the 2003 to 2012 recommended k0-datasets were adopted from older literature (Lit; before 1984), at the time of the launch of the k0- method and have associated uncertainties of 10 %. The E¯ r factors on the other hand, were derived analytically in 1979 and 1987 byemploying the Breit–Wigner resonance representation, but in 1984 a multi-channel method was proposed for simultaneous Q0 andE¯ r experimental determination. In this work we assumed the a-dependence of theE¯ r parameter proposed later in 1987 for a generalization of this method, which was then employed in the experimental determination of Q0 andE¯ r factors for 17 (n,c) target isotopes on up to three channels of the BR1 reactor at the SCK-CEN(Mol, Belgium).Retrospectively, this ‘‘a-vectormethod’’ can be employed for a-calibration and it provides a practical way of averaging the experimentalQ0 (and E¯ r) results from several laboratories.OurQ0 results have 2–3 % uncertainty and are compared with the Lit elsewhere.