Neutron total cross sections at intermediate energies.

Abstract

Pulsed-beam time-of-flight techniques are used in a transmission measurement with a continuous spectrum of neutrons to determine neutron total cross sections with good precision up to 600 MeV. Neutrons are produced by spallation of the 800 MeV proton beam from the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility accelerator incident on a thick, heavily shielded tungsten target at the Weapons Neutron Research facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Transmission measurements were completed for fifteen elements with 9\ensuremath{\le}A\ensuremath{\le}209 and three isotopically enriched samples of $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$, $^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$, and $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$. Principal features of the experiment are the intensity and time structure of the neutron source, tight collimation of the neutron beam line, good geometry, rapid cycling of the samples, stable electronics, and a small, fast neutron detector. Errors due to counting statistics were generally less than 1% for each of several hundred energy bins for each target. The measurements represent steps in the development of a neutron-nucleus optical potential at intermediate energy and important input for the clarification of isovector effects in the nucleon-nucleus interaction. The data also provide insight into the long-standing discussion of mean free paths of the nucleon in the nucleus.