Eur. Phys. J. A (2007) 32: 1-4
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2007-10368-7

Letter

Measurement of delayed neutron yields and time spectra from 1 GeV protons interacting with thick ^natPb targets

¹ DSM/DAPNIA, CEA Saclay, 91191, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France
² Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI), 188350, Gatchina, Leningrad district, Russia
³ DPTA/SPN, CEA/DAM Ile-de-France, 91680, Bruyères-le-Châtel, France
⁴ Institute of Physics, Savanoriu pr. 231, 02300, Vilnius, Lithuania

^* e-mail: ridikas@cea.fr

Received: 5 March 2007
Accepted: 10 April 2007
Published online: 3 May 2007

Abstract

In this paper we present for the first time the measured delayed neutron (DN) yields and time spectra from high-energy protons interacting with thick ^natPb targets. The 1GeV protons from the accelerator impinged on targets of different thicknesses producing a huge number of spallation-fission products, some of which can be DN precursors. After the beam is switched off, the DNs were detected with optimized ³He counter. The production yields of light DN precursors as ¹⁷N and “usual” fission products as ⁸⁷Br and ⁸⁸Br, which dominate the total DN activity, are obtained both for thin and thick targets. These new data are of great interest for the new generation high-power spallation targets based on liquid-metal technologies. Our findings also should help to constrain the physics models within the simulations codes.