Analysis of experimental data on neutron-proton scattering in the energy range between 0 and 150 keV

Abstract

Experimental data on neutron-proton scattering in the energy range between 0 and 150 keV are analyzed by using various sets of effective-range parameters. It is shown that, in contrast to the parameters corresponding to the phase shifts of a Nijmegen group, the parameters corresponding to the experimental phase shifts reported by a group from George Washington University (GWU group) lead to very good agreement between the calculated cross sections and their experimental counterparts in the energy region under consideration. On the basis of the experimental value of the cross section for neutron—proton scattering at an energy of 2 keV, the total cross section for neutron-proton scattering at zero energy was found to be σ0 = 20.428(16) b, which is in very good agreement with a value of σ0 = 20.423(9) b, which was obtained as the weighted mean of the cross sections presented by Houke and Hurst. It is shown that, in the energy region around several tens of keV units, the effective-range parameters matched with Dilg’s cross-section value of σ0 = 20.491(14) b lead to calculated cross sections whose values are in excess of their experimental counterparts.