Parameter Optimization and Sensitivity Studies of Spontaneous Fission with FREYA

R Vogt,J T Van Dyke,L A Bernstein,P Talou,J Randrup

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202023905003

Abstract

For many years, the state of the art for simulating fission in transport codes amounted to sampling from average distributions. However, such "average" fission models have limited capabilities. Energy is not explicitly conserved and no correlations are available because all particles are emitted independently. However, in a true fission event, the emitted particles are correlated. Recently, Monte Carlo codes generating complete fission events have been developed, thus allowing the use of event-by-event analysis techniques. Such techniques are particularly useful because the complete kinematic information is available for the fission products and the emitted neutrons and photons. It is therefore possible to extract any desired observables, including correlations. The fast event-by-event fission code FREYA (Fission Reaction Event Yield Algorithm) generates large samples of complete fission events, employing only a few physics-based parameters. A recent optimization of these parameters for the isotopes in FREYA that undergo spontaneous fission is described and results are presented. The sensitivity of neutron observables in FREYA to the input yield functions is also discussed and the correlation between the average neutron multiplicity and fragment total kinetic energy is quantified.

Highlights

1 Introduction In this proceedings, we introduce and describe the fission simulation code FREYA [1, 2]
FREYA requires the mass distribution of the primary fission fragments, Y(A), and the mean total kinetic energy for a given mass split, TKE(A), for the particular excitation considered. (FREYA can simulate both neutroninduced fission and spontaneous fission.) As we discuss later, FREYA can be modified to take inputs in the form Y(A, Z, TKE)
The parameter e0 only has a direct effect on the prompt fission neutron spectrum (PFNS)

Summary

Introduction

We introduce and describe the fission simulation code FREYA [1, 2]. The input parameters and their physical effects are presented. The results of the parameter optimization for spontaneous fission in FREYA [5] is discussed. A study of the sensitivity of the FREYA results for 252Cf(sf) to the input yields is described and the resulting correlation between neutron multiplicity ν and fragment total kinetic energy is shown [6]

Brief Description of FREYA

Parameter optimization for spontaneous fission

Findings

Summary