Extraction of spectroscopic factors using R-matrix theory

The relation of the dimensionless reduced width of a state to its spectroscopic strength is discussed and the spectroscopic factor is calculated as the ratio of the reduced width to that of an optical potential analyzed with the same channel radius and boundary condition number. From a model square well problem, the reduced width is shown to be sensitive to these parameters. Neutron scattering to the 5.08 MeV state of ¹⁷O is analyzed with R-matrix theory and the value obtained for its spectroscopic factor is 0.80. This value is shown to be moderately independent of the parameters of the optical potential, a fact which greatly simplifies analysis by eliminating the strong dependence upon the location of the pure single particle state.