Monoenergetic Neutrons for Stellar Applications

Abstract

AbstractWith modern techniques, neutron-capture cross sections can be determined with uncertainties of a few percent. However, Maxwellian averaged cross sections calculated from such data require a correction (because low-lying excited states are thermally populated in the hot stellar photon bath) which has to be determined by theoretical calculations. These calculations can be improved with information from indirect measurements, in particular by the inelastic scattering cross section. For low-lying levels, the inelastically scattered neutrons are difficult to separate from the dominant elastic channel. This problem is best solved by means of pulsed, monoenergetic neutron beams. For this reason, a pulsed beam of 30 keV neutrons with an energy spread of 7 to 9 keV FWHM and a width from 10 to 15 ns has been produced at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe using the 7Li(p, n)7Be reaction directly at the reaction threshold. With this neutron beam the inelastic scattering cross section of the first excited level at 9.75 keV in 187Os was determined with a relative uncertainty of 6%. The use of monoenergetic neutron beams has been further pursued at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, including the 3H(p, n)3He reaction for producing neutrons with an energy of 64 keV.