Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Neutron yield and energy spectrum of 13C(alpha,n)16O reaction in liquid scintillator of KamLAND: A Nedis-2m simulation

  • Vlaskin, Gennady N. (Innovation Technology Centre for the PRORYV Project) ;
  • Bedenko, Sergey V. (School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Tomsk Polytechnic University) ;
  • Ghal-Eh, Nima (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad) ;
  • Vega-Carrillo, Hector R. (Academic Unit of Nuclear Studies of the Autonomous University of Zacatecas)
  • Received : 2021.01.05
  • Accepted : 2021.06.12
  • Published : 2021.12.25
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Abstract

The 13C (α,n)16O reaction cross-section is important data for nuclear physics, astrophysical, and neutrino physics experiments, however, they exhibit uncertainties due to the discrepancies in the experimental data. In this study, using the Nedis-2m program code, the energy spectrum of α-induced neutrons in a thin carbon target was calculated and the corresponding reaction cross-section was refined in the alpha particle energy range of 5-8 MeV. The results were used to calculate the intensity and energy spectrum of background neutrons produced in the liquid scintillator of KamLAND. The results will be useful in a variety of astrophysical and neutrino experiments especially those based on LS or Gd-LS detectors.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The study was initiated by ITCP (Rosatom, Moscow) and is aimed at improving the methodology in the measurements with LS and Gd-LS detectors. This research is supported by Tomsk Polytechnic University, within the framework of Tomsk Polytechnic University Competitiveness Enhancement Program. We are also grateful to the editor and reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and thoughtful comments.

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