Careful measurements of the energy spectrum of photoneutrons ejected from praseodymium and from natural lead show that there are peaks on top of the expected smooth spectrum. Comparison with the recent cross-section studies, which indicate structure on the giant dipole resonance for these nuclei, shows agreement between the energies of the peaks found in the present work and the energies En = E−Qi where E corresponds to a peak in the cross-section curve and Qi is the threshold for producing a given state in the daughter nucleus. Only ground state transitions (for Pr) or ground state and the first two excited state transitions (for Pb) need be invoked.
Fine structure of the isovector giant dipole resonance in
Nd142–150
and
Sm152