Experimental Evidence of a Bonded Dineutron Existence

TL;DR

This paper presents experimental evidence for the existence of bonded dineutrons through neutron irradiation of terbium and detection of gamma rays, suggesting a new form of nuclear emission with specific properties.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of bonded dineutron emission and discusses its nuclear properties based on observed gamma-ray spectra and theoretical analysis.

Findings

Detection of a 944.2 keV gamma-ray peak indicating dineutron emission

Identification of 158Tb in the output channel after neutron irradiation

Evidence supporting bonded dineutron existence with specific binding energy range

Abstract

Experimental observation of 159Tb(n,2n) reaction product was performed with application of the activation technique. Tb specimen of natural composition was irradiated with (d,d) neutrons of 5.39 and 7 MeV energy at the AMANDE neutron generating facility. Several instrumental spectra of Tb specimen were measured with HPGe spectrometer in 1.5 years after last irradiation. An unexpected 944.2 keV {\gamma}-ray peak was observed. Other {\gamma}-ray lines of 158Tb were identified as well. A bonded dineutron emission with the binding energy (Bdn) within limitations 1.3 MeV < Bdn < 2.8 MeV is evidenced by the energy of incident neutrons and by 158Tb presence in output channel. The specific nuclear properties of 158Tb as deformed nucleus were then discussed to explain a bonded dineutron formation with certain half-lives based on theoretical assumptions and corresponding calculations, using standard parameters for this mass region.