Three decades of fast‐neutron experiments

AUG 01, 1969

Measurements of neutron cross sections and spectra have improved from the early days of homebuilt equipment through the war time developments in the Manhattan District to the present use of commercial accelerators and electronics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3035738

Henry H. Barschall

EXPERIMENTS WITH NEUTRONS in the MeV region are important both for learning about properties of nuclei and for applications in nuclear technology; yet relatively few nuclear physicists work in this area. The reason may be that experiments with neutrons are more difficult than those with charged particles, because neutrons can neither be accelerated nor detected directly. Consequently the accuracy of fast‐neutron experiments is typically an order of magnitude poorer than that of charged‐particle experiments. This comparison partially reflects the enormous advances of recent years in charged‐particle experiments, particularly with solid‐state detectors.

References

1. H. A. Bethe, R. F. Bacher, Rev. Mod. Phys. 8, 83 (1936); https://doi.org/RMPHAT
H. A. Bethe, Rev. Mod. Phys. 9, 71 (1937); https://doi.org/RMPHAT
M. S. Livingston, H. A. Bethe, Rev. Mod. Phys. 9, 246 (1937).https://doi.org/RMPHAT
2. H. H. Barschall, M. H. Kanner, Phys. Rev. 58, 590 (1940).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
3. J. A. Wheeler, H. H. Barschall, Phys. Rev. 58, 682 (1940).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
4. H. H. Barschall, R. Ladenburg, C. C. Van Voorhis, Phys. Rev. 59, 917 (1941).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
5. H. H. Barschall, R. Ladenburg, Phys. Rev. 61, 129 (1942).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
6. H. I. Zagor, F. A. Valente, Phys. Rev. 69, 55 (1946).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
7. H. H. Barschall, M. E. Battat, Phys. Rev. 70, 245 (1946).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
8. H. H. Goldsmith, H. W. Ibser, B. T. Feld, Rev. Mod. Phys. 19, 268 (1947).https://doi.org/RMPHAT
9. C. K. Bockelman, D. W. Miller, R. K. Adair, H. H. Barschall, Phys. Rev. 84, 69 (1951).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
10. C. H. Johnson, F. X. Haas, J. L. Fowler, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 13, 601 (1968).https://doi.org/BAPSA6
11. T. W. Bonner, W. M. Brubaker, Phys. Rev. 50, 308 (1936).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
12. D. W. Glasgow, D. G. Foster, Nucl. Phys. 99, 170 (1967).https://doi.org/NUPBBO
13. P. Huber, E. Baumgartner, Helv. Phys. Acta 26, 420 (1953).https://doi.org/HPACAK
14. R. K. Adair, S. E. Darden, R. E. Fields, Phys. Rev. 96, 503 (1954).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
15. Compilation of EANDC requests for neutron data measurements, EANDC Report 78 (1968).

More about the Authors

Henry H. Barschall. University of Wisconsin at Maidson.