Imaging neutron capture cross sections: i-TED proof-of-concept and future prospects based on Machine-Learning techniques

V. Babiano-Suárez; J. Lerendegui-Marco; J. Balibrea-Correa; L. Caballero; D. Calvo; I. Ladarescu; D. Real; C. Domingo-Pardo; F. Calviño; A. Casanovas; A. Tarifeño-Saldivia; V. Alcayne; C. Guerrero; M. A. Millán-Callado; T. Rodríguez-González; M. Barbagallo; O. Aberle; S. Amaducci; J. Andrzejewski; L. Audouin; M. Bacak; S. Bennett; E. Berthoumieux; J. Billowes; D. Bosnar; A. Brown; M. Busso; M. Caamaño; M. Calviani; D. Cano-Ott; F. Cerutti; E. Chiaveri; N. Colonna; G. Cortés; M. A. Cortés-Giraldo; L. Cosentino; S. Cristallo; L. A. Damone; P. J. Davies; M. Diakaki; M. Dietz; R. Dressler; Q. Ducasse; E. Dupont; I. Durán; Z. Eleme; B. Fernández-Domínguez; A. Ferrari; P. Finocchiaro; V. Furman; K. Göbel; R. Garg; A. Gawlik; S. Gilardoni; I. F. Gonçalves; E. González-Romero; F. Gunsing; H. Harada; S. Heinitz; J. Heyse; D. G. Jenkins; A. Junghans; F. Käppeler; Y. Kadi; A. Kimura; I. Knapova; M. Kokkoris; Y. Kopatch; M. Krtička; D. Kurtulgil; C. Lederer-Woods; H. Leeb; S. J. Lonsdale; D. Macina; A. Manna; T. Martinez; A. Masi; C. Massimi; P. Mastinu; M. Mastromarco; E. A. Maugeri; A. Mazzone; E. Mendoza; A. Mengoni; V. Michalopoulou; P. M. Milazzo; F. Mingrone; J. Moreno-Soto; A. Musumarra; A. Negret; F. Ogállar; A. Oprea; N. Patronis; A. Pavlik; J. Perkowski; L. Persanti; C. Petrone; E. Pirovano; I. Porras; J. Praena; J. M. Quesada; D. Ramos-Doval; T. Rauscher; R. Reifarth; D. Rochman; C. Rubbia; M. Sabaté-Gilarte; A. Saxena; P. Schillebeeckx; D. Schumann; A. Sekhar; A. G. Smith; N. V. Sosnin; P. Sprung; A. Stamatopoulos; G. Tagliente; J. L. Tain; L. Tassan-Got; Th. Thomas; P. Torres-Sánchez; A. Tsinganis; J. Ulrich; S. Urlass; S. Valenta; G. Vannini; V. Variale; P. Vaz; A. Ventura; D. Vescovi; V. Vlachoudis; R. Vlastou; A. Wallner; P. J. Woods; T. Wright; P. Žugec

doi:10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00507-7

2021 Impact factor 3.131

Hadrons and Nuclei

Eur. Phys. J. A (2021) 57: 197
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00507-7

Special Article - New Tools and Techniques

Imaging neutron capture cross sections: i-TED proof-of-concept and future prospects based on Machine-Learning techniques

V. Babiano-Suárez¹, J. Lerendegui-Marco¹^b, J. Balibrea-Correa¹, L. Caballero¹, D. Calvo¹, I. Ladarescu¹, D. Real¹, C. Domingo-Pardo¹, F. Calviño², A. Casanovas², A. Tarifeño-Saldivia², V. Alcayne³, C. Guerrero⁴^,5, M. A. Millán-Callado⁴^,5, T. Rodríguez-González⁴^,5, M. Barbagallo⁶^,7, O. Aberle⁶, S. Amaducci⁸^,9, J. Andrzejewski¹⁰, L. Audouin¹¹, M. Bacak⁶^,12^,13, S. Bennett¹⁴, E. Berthoumieux¹³, J. Billowes¹⁴, D. Bosnar¹⁵, A. Brown¹⁶, M. Busso⁸^,17^,18, M. Caamaño¹⁹, M. Calviani⁶, D. Cano-Ott³, F. Cerutti⁶, E. Chiaveri⁶^,14, N. Colonna⁷, G. Cortés², M. A. Cortés-Giraldo⁴, L. Cosentino⁸, S. Cristallo⁷^,17^,20, L. A. Damone⁷^,21, P. J. Davies¹⁴, M. Diakaki⁶^,22, M. Dietz²³, R. Dressler²⁴, Q. Ducasse²⁵, E. Dupont¹³, I. Durán¹⁹, Z. Eleme²⁶, B. Fernández-Domínguez¹⁹, A. Ferrari⁶, P. Finocchiaro⁸, V. Furman²⁷, K. Göbel²⁸, R. Garg²³, A. Gawlik¹⁰, S. Gilardoni⁶, I. F. Gonçalves²⁹, E. González-Romero², F. Gunsing¹³, H. Harada³⁰, S. Heinitz²⁴, J. Heyse³¹, D. G. Jenkins¹⁶, A. Junghans³², F. Käppeler³³, Y. Kadi⁶, A. Kimura³⁰, I. Knapova³⁴, M. Kokkoris²², Y. Kopatch²⁷, M. Krtička³⁴, D. Kurtulgil²⁸, C. Lederer-Woods²³, H. Leeb¹², S. J. Lonsdale²³, D. Macina¹, A. Manna³⁵^,36, T. Martinez³, A. Masi⁶, C. Massimi³⁵^,36, P. Mastinu³⁷, M. Mastromarco⁶, E. A. Maugeri²⁴, A. Mazzone⁷^,38, E. Mendoza², A. Mengoni³⁹, V. Michalopoulou⁶^,22, P. M. Milazzo⁴⁰, F. Mingrone⁶, J. Moreno-Soto¹³, A. Musumarra³^,41, A. Negret⁴², F. Ogállar⁴³, A. Oprea⁴², N. Patronis²⁶, A. Pavlik⁴⁴, J. Perkowski¹⁰, L. Persanti⁷^,17^,20, C. Petrone⁴², E. Pirovano²⁵, I. Porras⁴³, J. Praena⁴³, J. M. Quesada⁴, D. Ramos-Doval¹¹, T. Rauscher⁴⁵^,46, R. Reifarth²⁸, D. Rochman²⁴, C. Rubbia⁶, M. Sabaté-Gilarte⁴^,6, A. Saxena⁴⁷, P. Schillebeeckx³¹, D. Schumann²⁴, A. Sekhar¹⁴, A. G. Smith¹⁴, N. V. Sosnin¹⁴, P. Sprung²⁴, A. Stamatopoulos²², G. Tagliente⁷, J. L. Tain¹, L. Tassan-Got⁶^,11^,22, Th. Thomas²⁸, P. Torres-Sánchez⁴³, A. Tsinganis⁶, J. Ulrich²⁴, S. Urlass¹^,32, S. Valenta³⁴, G. Vannini³⁵^,36, V. Variale⁷, P. Vaz²⁹, A. Ventura³⁵, D. Vescovi⁷^,17, V. Vlachoudis⁶, R. Vlastou²², A. Wallner⁴⁸, P. J. Woods²³, T. Wright¹⁴ and P. Žugec¹⁵

¹ Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
² Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
³ Centro de Investigaciones Energtéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
⁴ Dpto. Física Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012, Seville, Spain
⁵ Centro Nacional de Aceleradores(CNA), Seville, Spain
⁶ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Meyrin, Switzerland
⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Italy
⁸ INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
¹⁰ University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
¹¹ Institut de Physique Nucléaire, CNRS-IN2P3, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91406, Orsay Cedex, France
¹² Technische Universität Wien, Wien, Austria
¹³ CEA Irfu, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁴ University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
¹⁵ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
¹⁶ University of York, York, UK
¹⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, Italy
¹⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
¹⁹ University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
²⁰ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Osservatorio Astronomico di Teramo, Teramo, Italy
²¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Bari, Italy
²² National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
²³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
²⁴ Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villingen, Switzerland
²⁵ Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Brunswick, Germany
²⁶ University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
²⁷ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia
²⁸ Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
²⁹ Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
³⁰ Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai-mura, Japan
³¹ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Geel, Retieseweg 111, 2440, Geel, Belgium
³² Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany
³³ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus North, IKP, 76021, Karlsruhe, Germany
³⁴ Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
³⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna, Italy
³⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
³⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Legnaro, Italy
³⁸ Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, Italy
³⁹ Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
⁴⁰ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Italy
⁴¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
⁴² Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
⁴³ University of Granada, Granada, Spain
⁴⁴ University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Vienna, Austria
⁴⁵ Department of Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
⁴⁶ Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
⁴⁷ Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India
⁴⁸ Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

^b jorge.lerendegui@ific.uv.es

Received: 3 February 2021
Accepted: 30 May 2021
Published online: 17 June 2021

Abstract

i-TED is an innovative detection system which exploits Compton imaging techniques to achieve a superior signal-to-background ratio in () cross-section measurements using time-of-flight technique. This work presents the first experimental validation of the i-TED apparatus for high-resolution time-of-flight experiments and demonstrates for the first time the concept proposed for background rejection. To this aim, the Au() and Fe() reactions were studied at CERN n_TOF using an i-TED demonstrator based on three position-sensitive detectors. Two CD detectors were also used to benchmark the performance of i-TED. The i-TED prototype built for this study shows a factor of 3 higher detection sensitivity than state-of-the-art CD detectors in the 10 keV neutron-energy region of astrophysical interest. This paper explores also the perspectives of further enhancement in performance attainable with the final i-TED array consisting of twenty position-sensitive detectors and new analysis methodologies based on Machine-Learning techniques.