Measurement of neutron capture on $^{136}$Xe

TL;DR

This study measures neutron capture cross sections and gamma cascades on $^{136}$Xe, providing essential data for neutrinoless double beta decay experiments to improve background understanding.

Contribution

The paper presents the first measurements of neutron capture cross sections and gamma cascades on $^{136}$Xe across a range of energies, aiding background modeling in decay searches.

Findings

Measured thermal and resonance neutron capture cross sections.

Developed gamma cascade models for $^{136}$Xe.

Provided data for background characterization in decay experiments.

Abstract

$^{136}$Xe is a 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} decay candidate isotope, and is used in multiple experiments searching for this hypothetical decay mode. These experiments require precise information about neutron capture for their background characterization and minimization. Thermal and resonant neutron capture on $^{136}$Xe have been measured at the Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE) at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. A neutron beam ranging from thermal energy to greater than 100 keV was incident on a gas cell filled with isotopically pure $^{136}$Xe. The relative neutron capture cross sections for neutrons at thermal energies and the first resonance at 2.154 keV have been measured. Additionally, the {\gamma} cascades for these captures have been measured, and cascade models have been developed which may be used by 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} experiments using $^{136}$Xe.