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jbirch
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So I have been reading about the cross section of neutron capture and have been reading about how the cross section for neutrons in a given material depends on neutron energy, the most important factor obviously. But I have not seen as much information on how, for a neutron of a given thermal or lower energy, the capture cross section changes with the tempetature of the target material.
So let's say we have a set of neutrons of 1 mev, obviously a very low energy and is either thermal or cold depending on your definition. And they are being launched into a slab of Aluminum. So the energy of the neutron is fixed at 1 mev for all neutrons being launched into the Aluminum each time they are launched into the Aluminum but the tempetature of the Aluminum changes. So if the neutrons are always at 1 mev, or another arbitrarily chosen low energy, and the size of the Aluminum slab is kept the same and the temperature of the Aluminum changes, with everything else in the experiment kept the same, then how do we determine how the neutron capture cross section changes in according to temperature of the target Aluminum ? How would the neutron capture cross section change as the Aluminum temperature is changed from 300 K to 250 K to 200 K to 150 K and then down to 20 K ? I know that for some target materials like Uranium there is a significant difference in neutron capture cross section but would changing the temperature fo Aluminum change the cross section at all ?
Any information on the theory behind the effect of the target temperature on the capture cross section or links to data tables, results and papers and publications that show what happens would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
jbirch
So let's say we have a set of neutrons of 1 mev, obviously a very low energy and is either thermal or cold depending on your definition. And they are being launched into a slab of Aluminum. So the energy of the neutron is fixed at 1 mev for all neutrons being launched into the Aluminum each time they are launched into the Aluminum but the tempetature of the Aluminum changes. So if the neutrons are always at 1 mev, or another arbitrarily chosen low energy, and the size of the Aluminum slab is kept the same and the temperature of the Aluminum changes, with everything else in the experiment kept the same, then how do we determine how the neutron capture cross section changes in according to temperature of the target Aluminum ? How would the neutron capture cross section change as the Aluminum temperature is changed from 300 K to 250 K to 200 K to 150 K and then down to 20 K ? I know that for some target materials like Uranium there is a significant difference in neutron capture cross section but would changing the temperature fo Aluminum change the cross section at all ?
Any information on the theory behind the effect of the target temperature on the capture cross section or links to data tables, results and papers and publications that show what happens would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
jbirch