Transitions, cross sections and neutron binding energy in $^{186}$Re by Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis*

The nuclide $^{186}$Re possesses an isomer with 200,000 year half-life while its ground state has a half-life of 3.718 days. It is also odd-odd and well-deformed nucleus, so should exhibit a variety of other interesting nuclear-structure phenomena. However, the available nuclear data is rather sparse; for example, the energy of the isomer is only known to within + 7 keV and, with the exception of the J?=1- ground state, every proposed level is tentative in the ENSDF. Previously, Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) was utilized to study $^{nat}$Re with $^{186,188}$Re being produced via thermal neutron capture. Recently, an enriched $^{185}$Re target was irradiated by thermal neutrons at the Budapest Research Reactor to build on those results. Prompt (primary and secondary) and delayed gamma-ray transitions were measured with a large-volume, Compton-suppressed HPGe detector. Absolute cross sections for each gamma transition were deduced and corrected for self attenuation within the sample. Fifty-two primary gamma-ray transitions were newly identified and used to determine a revised value of the neutron binding energy. DICEBOX was used to simulate the decay scheme and the total radiative thermal neutron capture cross section was found to be 97 +- 3 b