Potential reduction interior point algorithm unfolding of neutron energy spectrum measured by recoil proton method**supported by Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (2016XS61), and Opening Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Intense Pulsed Radiation Simulation and Effect.

Abstract

A reconstruction algorithm for unfolding neutron energy spectra has been developed, based for the first time on the potential reduction interior point algorithm. This algorithm can be easily applied to neutron energy spectrum reconstruction in the recoil proton method. We transform the neutron energy spectrum unfolding problem into a typical nonnegative linear complementarity problem. The recoil proton energy spectrum and response matrix at angles of 0° and 30° are generated by the Geant4 simulation toolkit. Several different neutron energy test spectra are also employed. It is found that this unfolding algorithm is stable and provides efficient, accurate results.