Neutron Elastic Scattering Differential Cross Sections on ¹³C

¹ Department of Physics, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, 21402 USA
² Department of Physics, University of Dallas, Irving, Texas, 75012 USA
³ Department of Physics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40506 USA
⁴ Department of Physics, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, 39762 USA
⁵ Fibertek Inc, Herndon, VA, 20171 USA and US Army CCDC, Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD, 20783 USA
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40506 USA

^* e-mail: vanhoyjeffrey@gmail.com

Published online: 25 June 2025

Abstract

Neutron elastic scattering cross sections on natural carbon serve as a reference standard in the incident energy range 10 eV to 1.8 MeV. The 2017 standards evaluation [1, 2] is 0.5 to 2.0% higher in that energy range than the 2006 standards evaluation [3]. In addition the ENDF/B-VIII.0 release split the natural carbon cross sections into the isotopes ¹²C, ¹³C, and ¹⁴C for the first time. These details call for the re-measurement of the ¹³C cross sections in sensitive regions. Ten elastic scattering angular distributions were recently measured for incident neutron energies between 0.5 and 3.25 MeV at the University of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory (www.pa.uky.edu/accelerator/) using nanosecond pulsed beams and time-of-flight techniques. An overview of neutron production and detection, the new digital data acquisition system, and data analysis will be presented. Results are compared with data from previous measurements and database evaluations.