Radiative Neutron Capture on Lithium-7

Abstract

The radiative neutron capture on lithium-7 is calculated model independently using a low energy halo effective field theory. The cross section is expressed in terms of scattering parameters directly related to the S-matrix element. The cross section depends on the poorly known p-wave effective range parameter r. This constitutes the leading order uncertainty in traditional model calculations. It is explicitly demonstrated by comparing with potential model calculations. A single parameter fit describes the low energy data extremely well and yields r = -1.47 fm^{-1}.