Neutron capture cross section of C14 of astrophysical interest studied by Coulomb breakup of C15

The neutron capture reaction on C14 leading to the C15 ground state, which plays an important role in various nucleosynthesis processes, has been studied using the Coulomb breakup of C15 on a Pb target at 68 MeV/nucleon. The breakup cross section has been converted into the energy-dependent neutron capture cross section using the principle of detailed balance. The energy spectrum shows typical p-wave neutron capture characteristics, which is explained by the fact that the ground state of C15 possesses a strong single-particle s-wave component and a moderate-sized neutron halo structure. The capture cross section for the C14(n,γ)C15 reaction derived from the present experiment has been found to be consistent with the most recent data, directly measured using a C14 target. This result assures the validity of the Coulomb breakup method in deriving the neutron capture cross section for neutron-rich nuclei.