179Ta(n,γ) cross-section measurement and the astrophysical origin of the 180Ta isotope

180m} is nature’s rarest (quasi) stable isotope and its astrophysical origin is an open question. A possible production site of this isotope is the slow neutron capture process in Asymptotic Giant Branch stars, where it can be produced via neutron capture reactions on unstable . We report a new measurement of the (n,γ) cross section at thermal neutron energies via the activation technique. Our results for the thermal and resonance-integral cross-sections are 952 ± 57 b and 2013 ± 148 b, respectively. The thermal cross section is in good agreement with the only previous measurement (Phys. Rev C 60 025802, 1999), while the resonance integral is different by a factor of $$1.7. While neutron energies in this work are smaller than the energies in a stellar environment, our results may lead to improvements in theoretical predictions of the stellar cross section.