The possibility to use ‘energy plus transmutation’ set-up for neutron production and transport benchmark studies

The set-up ‘energy plus transmutation’, consisting of a thick lead target and a natural uranium blanket, was irradiated by relativistic proton beams with the energy from 0.7 GeV up to 2 GeV. Neutron field was measured in different places of this set-up using different activation detectors. The possibilities of using the obtained data for benchmark studies are analyzed in this paper. Uncertainties of experimental data are shown and discussed. The experimental data are compared with results of simulation with MCNPX code.      

Neutron cross-sections above 20 MeV for design and modeling of accelerator driven systems

One of the outstanding new developments in the field of partitioning and transmutation (P&T) concerns accelerator-driven systems (ADS) which consist of a combination of a high-power, high-energy accelerator, a spallation target for neutron production and a sub-critical reactor core. The development of the commercial critical reactors of today motivated a large effort on nuclear data up to about 20 MeV, and presently several million data points can be found in various data libraries. At higher energies, data are scarce or even non-existent. With the development of nuclear techniques based on neutrons at higher energies, nowadays there is a need also for higher-energy nuclear data. To provide alternative to this lack of data, a wide program on neutron-induced data related to ADS for P&T is running at the 20–180 MeV neutron beam facility at ‘The Svedberg Laboratory’ (TSL), Uppsala. The programme encompasses studies of elastic scattering, inelastic neutron production, i.e., (n, xn′) reactions, light-ion production, fission and production of heavy residues. Recent results are presented and future program of development is outlined.      

Crystal and magnetic structures of Y2CrS4

Chromium(II) sulfide, Y₂CrS₄, prepared by a solid-state reaction of Y₂S₃ and CrS, showed an antiferromagnetic transition at 65 K. The neutron diffraction patterns at 10 and 90 K were both well refined with the space group Pca2₁. At 90 K, cell parameters were a=12.5518(13) Å, b=7.5245(8) Å, and c=12.4918(13) Å. At 10 K, magnetic peaks were observed, which could be indexed on the same unit cell. Magnetic moments of chromium ions were parallel to the b-axis and antiferromagnetically ordered in each set of the 4a sites.     

Extending the applicability of the discrete dipole approximation for multi-scale features on surface

Many problems in science and engineering involve significant physical entities and processes that span a substantial range of dimensions. In the case of characterization of bacteria on growth media using light scattering the length scales of interest can be classified as micro-scale (single bacterium), macro-scale (bacterial colonies of more than 10¹² bacterium that have passed through the exponential growth phase and reached mm size), and the intermediate or meso-scale of several tens of hundreds of bacteria. Light scattering approaches, to be effective in determining physical properties such as morphology and material composition, must comprehend this spectrum of length scales. The discrete dipole approximation (DDA), a powerful modeling tool for rigorous 3-D vector scattering, has shown its capability to predict the light scattering from micro-scale objects. To be able to accommodate meso-scale objects, we need to extend the computational limits of the DDA method such that it could compute object sizes of 10λ-30λ characteristic dimension (i.e. volumes of 10³-10⁴ cubic wavelengths). To accomplish this, an analysis of the DDA method was performed for meso-scale cases of interest especially in biological applications. Based on this study, we propose new Sommerfeld integration paths and a revised iterative algorithm that combine to provide substantial improvements in the size of the computational domain that can be modeled for a given convergence criterion.     

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根据HCSB-DEMO堆的设计要求,对不同尺寸的聚变堆能产生的聚变功率、中子壁负载和等离子体燃烧时间等进行计算与分析,给出了符合设计要求的堆芯参数。在所选定的堆芯参数条件下进行了零维功率平衡计算分析,给出了3组HCSB-DEMO堆的等离子体初步设计参数。     

Searching for gravitational waves with the LIGO and Virgo interferometers

The first generation of ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors, LIGO, GEO, and Virgo, have operated and taken data at their design sensitivities over the last few years. The data has been examined for the presence of gravitational wave signals. Presented here is a comprehensive review of the most significant results. The network of detectors is currently being upgraded and extended, providing a large likelihood for observations. These future prospects will also be discussed.     

Light scattering by Gaussian random ellipsoid particles: First results with discrete-dipole approximation

We introduce the stochastic geometry of a Gaussian random ellipsoid (GE) and, with the discrete-dipole approximation, carry out preliminary computations for light scattering by wavelength-scale GE particles. In the GE geometry, we describe the base ellipsoid by the three semiaxes a?b?c. The axial ratios b:a and c:a appear as two shape parameters additional to those of the Gaussian random sphere geometry (GS). We compare the scattering characteristics of GE particles to those of ellipsoids. Introducing irregularities on ellipsoids smoothens the angular scattering characteristics, in a way analogous to the smoothening of spherical particle characteristics in the case of GS particles.     

Structure and magnetic properties of the Al1−xGaxFeO3 family of oxides: A combined experimental and theoretical study

Magnetic properties of the Al_1−xGa_xFeO₃ family of oxides crystallizing in a non-centrosymmetric space group have been investigated in detail along with structural aspects by employing X-ray and neutron diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy and other techniques. The study has revealed the occurrence of several interesting features related to unit cell parameters, site disorder and ionic size. Using first-principles density functional theory based calculations, we have attempted to understand how magnetic ordering and related properties in these oxides depend sensitively on disorder at the cation site. The origin and tendency of cations to disorder and the associated properties are traced to the local structure and ionic sizes.     

A high temperature diffraction-resistance study of chalcopyrite, CuFeS2

The electrical, magnetic and structural properties of synthetic chalcopyrite, CuFeS₂, have been studied up to 873 K using DC resistance measurements performed in-situ during neutron powder diffraction experiments. Under ambient conditions the material adopts the accepted structural model for CuFeS₂ in the space group I4?2d, with the magnetic moment of the Fe³⁺ cations aligned along [001]. The electrical resistivity is around 0.3 Ω cm under ambient conditions, consistent with semiconductor character, and decreases slightly with increase in temperature until a more abrupt fall occurs in the region 750-800 K. This abrupt change in resistivity is accompanied by a structural transition to a cubic zinc blende structured phase (space group F4?3m) in which Cu⁺ and Fe³⁺ cations are disordered over the same tetrahedral crystallographic sites and by a simultaneous loss of long-range magnetic order. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of previous studies of the chalcopyrite system.     

Time series analysis and Monte Carlo methods for eigenvalue separation in neutron multiplication problems

A time series approach has been applied to the nuclear fission source distribution generated by Monte Carlo (MC) particle transport in order to calculate the non-fundamental mode eigenvalues of the system. The novel aspect is the combination of the general technical principle of projection pursuit for multivariate data with the neutron multiplication eigenvalue problem in the nuclear engineering discipline. Proof is thoroughly provided that the stationary MC process is linear to first order approximation and that it transforms into one-dimensional autoregressive processes of order one (AR(1)) via the automated choice of projection vectors. The autocorrelation coefficient of the resulting AR(1) process corresponds to the ratio of the desired mode eigenvalue to the fundamental mode eigenvalue. All modern MC codes for nuclear criticality calculate the fundamental mode eigenvalue, so the desired mode eigenvalue can be easily determined.