General features of nuclear reactions

Types of reaction. In this article mainly reactions of the general type 

2 This type of reaction is discussed in the article by Wattenberg, vol. XL of this Encyclopedia. 

Burcham Nuclear Reactions, Levels, and Spectra of Light Nuclei. Sect. 6. 

It is commonly assumed in discussions of the N. Bohr theory of reactions that the cross section o ab) for a nuclear reaction may be written in the form 

The total cross section for interaction of particle a with the nucleus X is greater than a) because of elastic scattering of a by the potential fields surrounding X. Some elastic scattering is also obtained by re-emission of a particle a from the compound nucleus, with partial width which is included in F, It is therefore also useful to write 

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