Measurement of the stellar ⁵⁸Ni(n, γ)⁵⁹Ni cross section with AMS

The ⁵⁸Ni(n; γ)⁵⁹Ni cross section was measured with a combination of the activation technique and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The neutron activations were performed at the Karlsruhe 3.7 MV Van de Graaff accelerator using the quasi-stellar neutron spectrum at kT = 25 keV produced by the ⁷Li(p, n)⁷Be reaction. The subsequent AMS measurements were carried out at the 14 MV tandem accelerator of the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratory in Garching using the Gas-filled Analyzing Magnet System (GAMS). Three individual samples were measured, yielding a Maxwellian-averaged cross section at kT = 30 keV of <σ> _30keV= 30.4 (23) ^syst (9) ^stat mbarn. This value is slightly lower than two recently published measurements using the time-of-flight (TOF) method, but agrees within the uncertainties. Our new results also resolve the large discrepancy between older TOF measurements and our previous value.