Strong flux of low-energy neutrons produced by thunderstorms

We report here for the first time about the registration of an extraordinary high flux of low-energy neutrons generated during thunderstorms. The measured neutron count rate enhancements are directly connected with thunderstorm discharges. The low-energy neutron flux value obtained in our work is a challenge for the photonuclear channel of neutron generation in thunderstorm: the estimated value of the needed high-energy γ-ray flux is about 3 orders of magnitude higher than that one observed.     

Study of background processes with the formation of neutrons in nuclear reactions in the energy range of 26–32 kev

The nature of background processes accompanying astrophysical nuclear reactions induced by hydrogen, helium, and neon ions in deuterated targets with small cross sections has been studied in calculations and experiments. The experiments have been performed at a Hall pulsed plasma accelerator in the ion energy range of 26–32 keV. The yield of background neutrons and γ-quanta with energies below 4 MeV in the proton-induced D(p, γ)³He reaction is primarily due to the presence of a natural impurity of gaseous deuterium in gaseous hydrogen and the chain of D(D, ³He)n → (n, γ) or (n, n'γ) reactions. A small contribution comes from the chain of D(¹H, ¹H)D → D(D, ³He)n → (n, γ) or (n, n'γ) reactions. It has been shown that background neutrons and γ-quanta from the D(4He, γ)6Li reaction are entirely due to the chain of D(⁴He, ⁴He)D → D(D, ³He)n → (n, γ) or (n, n'γ) reactions. It has been shown that the yield of neutrons and γ-ray photons detected at the interaction of neon ions with deuterated targets is also entirely due to the chain of elastic- scattering reactions of neon ions on deuterons in the target and to subsequent inelastic processes of interaction of deuterons accelerated at elastic scattering with other deuterons of the target. The main contribution to the yields of background neutrons and γ-quanta comes from doubly charged neon ions. The main conclusion is that the explanation of the yield of neutrons and γ-quanta at the interaction of hydrogen, helium, and neon ions with deuterated targets does not require “exotic” theoretical models.     

Energy and angular momentum transfers in equilibrium and pre-equilibrium 158Gd(α, xn) reactions

Neutron time-of-flight spectra and γ-ray multiplicities were measured in coincidence with discrete γ-rays for specific exit channels in the ¹⁵⁸Gd(α, xn) reactions at E_α = 70 MeV. The neutron energy spectra and angular distributions were analysed in terms of equilibrium and non-equilibrium decay processes. Significant emission of non-equilibrated neutrons was found, amounting to about 40 %, 25 % and 15 % of the total neutron emission in the 4n, 5n and 6n exit channels, respectively. The corresponding average kinetic energies in this precompound phase were around 12, 8 and 4.5 MeV. The angular momentum carried away by the neutrons was found to be rather constant for all exit channels and on the average about 3? units. It is found that the total energy and angular momentum removed by the neutrons and γ-rays agrees within the experimental errors with the calculated values for the compound nucleus.     

Evaluated Cross Sections of Photoneutron Reactions on the Isotope <Superscript>116</Superscript>Sn and Spectra of Neutrons Originating from These Reactions

With the aid of the results obtained by evaluating cross sections of partial photoneutron reactions on the isotope ¹¹⁶Sn and the energy spectra of neutrons originating from these reactions, the possible reasons for the well-known discrepancies between the results of different photonuclear experiments were studied on the basis of a combinedmodel of photonuclear reactions. On the basis of physical criteria of data reliability and an experimental–theoretical method for evaluating cross sections of partial reactions, it was found that these discrepancies were due to unreliably redistributing neutrons between (γ, 1n), (γ, 2n), and (γ, 3n) reactions because of nontrivial correlations between the experimentally measured energy of neutrons and their multiplicity.     

Cross-sections of the 238U (n, γ) 239U reaction in the 3.0–7.0 MeV energy region measured by relative activation method

The reaction cross-sections of ²³⁸U (n, γ)²³⁹U have been experimentally determined at neutron energies of 6.117 ± 0.119 MeV, 4.626 ± 0.086 MeV, and 3.622 ± 0.348 MeV employing the relative activation approach along with the off-line γ-ray spectroscopy method. The D (d, n)³He reaction was utilized to obtain monoenergetic neutrons of the required energy, and the ¹⁹⁷Au (n, γ)¹⁹⁸Au reaction cross-sections were adopted as the referential standard to ascertain the neutron capture cross-sections of ²³⁸U. Furthermore, the effects of low-energy scattered neutrons, neutron fluence fluctuations, counting of geometric corrections when measuring γ-rays, and neutron and γ-ray self-absorption caused by the sample thickness have been considered and revised in the present work. For a comparison with experimental results, the cross-sections of the ²³⁸U (n, γ)²³⁹U reaction were calculated theoretically with the original parametric TALYS-1.9 program. The experimental measurements were in contrast to previous experimental results and the evaluation data available for ROSFOND-2010, CENDL-3.2 and ENDF/B-VIII.0.     

Monte-Carlo calculations for neutron yield from photonuclear reactions following bremsstrahlung in tungsten target

The photonuclear reactions of (γ, xn) or (γ, xnp) types can be used to produce high-intensity neutron sources for research and applied purposes. In this work a Monte-Carlo calculation has been used to evaluate the production yields of neutrons from the (γ, n) and (γ, 2n) reactions following the bremsstrahlung produced by 100 and 200 MeV electron beams on the tungsten target. Our calculations indicated that the neutron yield is an increasing function of the target thickness in a considered range from 1.5 to 2.5 mm.     

Precise determination of neutron binding energy of <Superscript>64</Superscript>Cu

The neutron binding energy in ⁶⁴Cu has been accurately measured in thermal neutron capture. A composite target of natural Cu and NaCl was used on a high flux neutron beam using a large measuring time. The γ-ray spectrum emitted in the (n, γ) reaction was measured with a HPGe detector in large statistics (up to 10⁶ events per channel). Intrinsic limitations of HPGe detectors, which restrict the accuracy of energy calibration, were determined. The value B _n of ⁶⁴Cu was determined as 7915.867(24) keV.     

Anomalies of neutron and γ-ray emission in light charged particle accompanied fission of 252Cf

Correlations between the neutron and γ-ray emission and the kinetic energy of light charged particles (LCPs), such as protons, deuterons, tritons and alphas, from the fission of ²⁵²Cf were studied in a four parameter experiment. A ⊘ 16 cm × 5 cm liquid scintillator with n-γ discrimination and a ⊘ 10 cm × 10 cm NaI(Tl) crystal were employed to detect the neutrons and the γ rays, respectively, while a thin CsI(Tl) crystal, which had the ability to separate the LCPs, was used to determine the LCP energy. The experimental results show that for the α particle accompanied fission, the average total number of neutrons emitted per fission increases in the case of varying the alpha particle energy E_α from 7 to 11 MeV and then falls off linearly in a first approximation with increasing E_α, and the average total energy and the average total number of γ-rays per fission as well as the average γ-ray energy as functions of E_α show similar correlation features. For the hydrogen-ion accompanied fission, the correlations of the neutron and γ-ray emission with hydrogen ion (t, d and p) energy are very similar to those for the alpha-particle accompanied fission. The correlations of the neutron and γ-ray emission in the low LCP energy region, in contrast to that observed in the high LCP energy range, are called anomalies. On the basis of the results obtained by the three-point charge model and the liquid drop model calculation with shell and pairing correction, the anomalous behavior of the neutron and γ-ray emission is explained tentatively.     

Die Energieverteilung der Neutronen aus einer Po-α-Be-Quelle

The neutrons from a Po-α-Be source were detected via the recoil protons in a stilbene scintillator. The pulse height spectrum of the scintillations produced in the stilbene crystal by the recoil protons is analysed to yield the incident neutron energy distribution. Theγ-ray background was eliminated through pulse shape discrimination. Separately the spectrum of neutrons coincident withγ-rays, i.e. of neutrons from the Be⁹(α,n)C^12* reaction, has been determined. The resulting spectra are compared to previous measurements. The structure of the spectra is not compatible with an isotropic angular distribution of the neutrons relative to theα-direction. Furthermore it could be shown that the fraction of reactions leading to the 7,65 MeV state of C¹² is only about 10^?3.     

Competition between few nucleon emission andγ-ray deexcitation for the reaction systems65Cu+87Rb and40Ar+110Pd

Bothγ-ray and neutron emission have been studied for the reaction systems⁶⁵Cu(237MeV) +⁸⁷Rb→¹⁵²Dy^* and⁴⁰Ar(158MeV)+¹¹⁰Pd→¹⁵⁰Gd^*. By using a sum spectrometer in coincidence with neutron counters, Ge(Li) or Nal detectors, we have measured the totalγ-ray energy and the average totalγ-multiplicity distributions as well as the neutron spectra for various exit channels. These measurements provide strong evidence for thermal equilibrium in reactions involving a small number of emitted neutrons (i.e.⁸⁷Rb(⁶⁵Cu,n or 2n)) at rather high excitation energy (～54MeV). This statistical emission of only a few neutrons is controlled by very strong y-ray competition: theγ-entry line is found not to be parallel to the yrast line. Instead the energy gap is about 8MeV for J～27? and rises to at least 13MeV for J～36?. There are some indications that the main part of the energy from this gap is removed by statisticalγ-ray cascades. The main features of the experimental data for both entrance channels are well reproduced by statistical model calculations with proper attention to the yrast line position and an adjustement of the dipoleγ-ray normalization coefficient. It is conceivable that the y-ray enhancement that we introduce may be related to a lack of knowledge of the absolute level densities at high energy and spin, or possibly to the presence of new or additional degrees of freedom that may enter into the competition between neutron andγ-ray emission.     

Generation of neutrons in giant upward atmospheric discharges

It has been shown that the efficiency of the reactions of the fusion of deuterons in the atmosphere is very low; therefore, nuclear fusion cannot be responsible for the generation of neutrons by lightning. The generation of neutrons in thunderstorm fields is attributed to photonuclear reactions in giant upward atmospheric discharges over thunderclouds.     

Experimental study of nuclear processes in the presence of superstrong fields of a picosecond laser plasma

Nuclear processes in the presence of the superstrong laser fields of a picosecond laser plasma are experimentally studied at a radiation intensity of 2 × 10¹⁸ W/cm² on a Neodim laser setup with a power of 10 TW. Experimental data regarding neutron generation on the surface of a deuterated target (CD₂)_n owing to the thermonuclear fusion ²H(d,n)³He and the neutron generation on the Be target due to the photonuclear reaction ⁹Be(γ,n)2α are presented. Neutron yields Y _n of 10⁶ and 10³ per 4π sr per laser pulse are obtained for the (CD₂)_n and Be targets, respectively. The alpha-particle yield is measured for the first time in the neutron-free thermonuclear reactions ¹¹B + H → 3⁴He in the laser plasma on the surface of the composite B + (CH₂)_n targets. The alpha-particle yield is 10³ per 4π sr per laser pulse.     

Helium burning of22Ne

The²²Ne(α, γ)²⁶Mg and²²Ne(α, n)²⁵Mg reactions were investigated forE _α(lab) from 0.71 to 2.25 MeV. Neon gas enriched to 99% in²²Ne was recirculated in a differentially pumped gas target system of the extended type. Theγ-ray transitions were observed with Ge(Li) detectors and the neutrons with³He ionization chambers. A previously known resonance at E_R(lab)=2.05 MeV was verified and 15 new resonances were found in the energy range covered, with the lowest at E_R(lab)=0.83 MeV. Information on resonance energies, widths, strengths,γ-ray branching ratios, as well asJ ^π assignments, is reported. The energy range investigated corresponds to the important temperature range ofT ₉ from 0.3 to 1.4 (10⁹ K), for which the astrophysical rates were determined for both reactions. The results show that the ratios of the rates for²²Ne(α, n)²⁵Mg and²²Ne(α, γ)²⁶Mg are significantly smaller than the previously adopted values, e.g., by at least a factor of 60 nearT ₉=0.65. Thus, the²²Ne(α, n)²⁵Mg reaction will likely play a smaller role as a neutron source fors-process nucleosynthesis, than has frequently been assumed.     

Calculation of Spectra of Neutrons and Charged Particles Produced in a Target of a Neutron Generator

An algorithm for calculating the spectra of neutrons and associated charged particles produced in the target of a neutron generator is detailed. The products of four nuclear reactions ³H(d,n)⁴He, ²H(d,n)³He, ²H(d,p)³H, and ³He(d,p)⁴He are analyzed. The results of calculations are presented in the form of neutron spectra for several emission angles and spectra of associated charged particles emitted at an angle of 180° for a deuteron initial energy of 0.13 MeV.     

Physical criteria for the reliability of data on the photodisintegration of the <Superscript>89</Superscript>Y nucleus

Experimental photonuclear reaction cross sections obtained in experiments using quasimonoenergetic annihilation, monoenergetic tagged photons, and bremsstrahlung γ-radiation are analyzed using physical criteria for the reliability of data on the ⁸⁹Y nucleus. It is found that the reliability of data on the cross sections of partial reactions (γ, 1n) and (γ, 2n), obtained by means of photoneutron multiplicity sorting, is highly doubtful. Reliable cross sections of reactions (γ, 1n) and (γ, 2n) are obtained using the experimental–theoretical method (ETM) for evaluating using both experimental cross sections of neutron yield reaction σ^exp(γ, xn) that are free of neutron multiplicity problems, and theoretically calculated F _i ^theor ratios of the cross sections of definite (i) partial reactions to cross section σ^theor(γ, xn). It is shown that the evaluated cross sections differ noticeably from the experimental data.     

Atmospheric gamma-ray and neutron flashes

Gamma-ray pulses are calculated from 2D numerical simulations of an upward atmospheric discharge in a self-consistent electric field using the multigroup approach to the kinetics of relativistic runaway electrons (REs). Computed γ-ray numbers and spectra are consistent with those of terrestrial γ-ray flashes (TGFs) observed aboard spacecrafts. The RE flux is concentrated mainly within the domain of the Blue Jet fluorescence. This confirms that exactly the domain adjacent to a thundercloud is the source of the observed γ-ray flashes. The yield of photonuclear neutrons is calculated. One γ-ray pulse generates ∼10¹⁴–10¹⁵ neutrons. The possibility of the direct deposition of REs to the detector readings and the origin of the lightning-advanced TGFs are discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Cross-section measurements and thermonuclear reaction rates for 50Ti(p, γ)51V and 50Ti(p,n)50V

The yields of γ-rays from the reactions ⁵⁰Ti(p, γ)⁵¹V and ⁵⁰Ti(p, p 'γ)⁵⁰Ti have been measured as a function of bombarding energy over the range 0.73–4.39 MeV and the yield of neutrons from the reaction ⁵⁰Ti(p, n)⁵⁰V has been measured from threshold to a bombarding energy of 4.39 MeV. Competition effects were observed in the γ-ray yields from the (p, γ) and (p, pγ) reactions at the threshold of the (p, n) reaction. The observed yields in all channels were lower by factors of order 3 than those predicted by statistical-model calculations based on global optical parameters and the competition observed in the (p, γ) yield at the opening of the neutron channel was approximately one half that predicted by the statistical-model calculations. These failures of the calculations are tentatively attributed to the neutron closed-shell nature of ⁵⁰Ti. Thermonuclear reaction rates for the (p, γ) and (p, n) reactions are calculated for the temperature range (0.6–5) × 10⁹ K which includes the range of temperatures of interest in nucleosynthesis calculations.     

The (p,nγ) reaction on Al and Si

The reactions ²⁷Al(p, n γ) ²⁷Si and ²⁸Si(p, n γ)²⁸P have been studied at E_p = 16 and 23 MeV, respectively, with a Ge(Li) detector in coincidence with a neutron detector. In ²⁷Si, two new γ-tran- sitions were detected and accurate excitation energies were determined. In ²⁸P, the γ-decay scheme was studied for the first time and new levels were located at 879 and 1602 keV excitation energy. For both nuclei the γ-ray spectra were supplemented by neutron time-of-flight spectra. The excitation energies are compared with those of the analogue nuclei and with the predictions from Coulomb displacement calculations.     

Gamma rays and neutrons following preequilibrium 165Ho(p, xcnypγ) reactions at Ep = 60 MeV

Neutrons and γ-rays following 60 MeV proton bombardment of ¹⁶⁵Ho were measured in coincidence with discrete γ-rays characteristic of the reaction channels (residual nuclei). The cross sections for the (p, xcnγ) reactions with x = 2–6, the γ-ray multiplicities, and the energy and angular distributions of the emitted neutrons were analyzed in terms of the preequilibrium and equilibrium deexcitation processes. Characteristic behaviours of the preequilibrium process were found in the (p, 2nγ) and (p, 4nγ) reactions where the sum E_T, = ∑^xE_i of the energies E_i of the emitted neutrons was large, while those of the equilibrium process were typical for the (p, 6ny) reaction with small E_T. The reactions are well reproduced by the expression σ. ≈0.35∑_xσ (2, x?2) + 0.4∑_xσ(1, χ?1)+ 0.25∑_xσ(0, x), where σ(n_p, n_c) stands for emission of n_p neutrons at the preequilibrium stage followed by evaporation of n_c neutrons at the equilibrium stage.     

The polarization of MeV neutrons elastically scattered from 4He

The analyzing power of ⁴He for neutron elastic scattering has been measured at four angles between 20° and 80° (lab) throughout the energy range 1.5–6.0 MeV using a doublescattering method. The intense flux of polarized neutrons was generated via the reactions Pb(γ, n) → ¹²C(n, $\text{n}$)¹²C, and the magnitude of the polarization of the neutron beam measured absolutely in a separate double-scattering experiment. Neutron energies were determined with a nanosecond time-of-flight spectrometer, and the generalized neutron spin-precession method was used to minimize systematic uncertainties.