https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-023-00971-3
Regular Article – Experimental Physics
Relevance of β-delayed neutron data for reactor, nuclear physics and astrophysics applications
1
Department of Chemistry, Pharmacy & Geosciences, University of Mainz, D-55128, Mainz, Germany
2
Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn-Institute), D-55128, Mainz, Germany
Received:
4
January
2023
Accepted:
4
March
2023
Published online:
5
May
2023
Initially, yields (or abundances) and branching ratios of β-delayed neutrons (βdn) from fission products (Pn-values) have had their main importance in nuclear reactor control. At that time, the six-group mathematical approximation of the time-dependence of βdn-data in terms of the so-called “Keepin groups” was generally accepted. Later, with the development of high-resolution neutron spectroscopy, βdn data have provided important information on nuclear-structure properties at intermediate excitation energy in nuclei far from stability, as well as in nuclear astrophysics. In this paper, I will present some examples of the βdn-studies performed by the Kernchemie Mainz group during the past three decades. This work has been recognized as an example of “broad scientific diversity” which has led to my nomination for the 2014 Hans A. Bethe prize.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
