Cross Section Measurements for Quasielastic Neutron-Induced Deuteron Breakup

Abstract

An experiment to measure the quasielastic d(n;np)n scattering cross sections at intermediate incident neutron energies, ranging up to 800 MeV, was conducted by a collaboration of researchers from Houghton College, MIT, the University of Kentucky and Los Alamos National Laboratory at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). Protons from deuteron breakup reaction travel through a magnetic spectrometer, consisting of an initial thin plastic DE scintillator, a set of drift chambers, two permanent magnets, another set of drift chambers and two rear plastic scintillators. An array of nine two-meter high plastic scintillators detects scattered neutrons. The np elastic scattering data collected in tandem with this experiment will be used to determine the normalization for the n??d breakup cross section.