NUMBER OF DEGREES OF FREEDOM IN PRIMARY GAMMA-DECAY AFTER NEUTRON-CAPTURE

The intensities of primary gamma-ray transitions following thermal and average resonance neutron capture have been found to depend on the fi nal-state K quantum number. The apparent K-hindrance effect is signifi cantly stronger in the thermal than in the ARC case. After thermal neu tron capture, the shapes of the transition probability distributions i ndicate that the K-allowed transitions are associated with a higher nu mber of degrees of freedom than the K-forbidden ones.