Investigation of long lived activity produced due to neutron emitting reactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the long-lived gamma activity caused by neutron-emitting reactions used in energy calibration of accelerators, highlighting potential interference with future measurements at the FRENA facility.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of neutron-induced long-lived gamma activity relevant for calibration experiments at low-energy accelerators.

Findings

Neutron interactions can produce significant long-lived gamma activity.

Calibration reactions like $^7Li(p,n)$ can lead to gamma background interference.

Implications for experimental accuracy at the FRENA facility.

Abstract

In this article, a detailed investigation has been done for the long lived gamma activity due to neutron emitting experiments. These calculations mainly focused on the experiments used for energy calibration purposes. Calibrated energy is one of the most essential features of any accelerator facility. Several experiments have been used for this purpose. Generally, experiments having sharp curvature change in cross section of yield are used. Neutron emitting experiments are one of such. Around the globe reactions like $^7Li(p,n)$, $^{13}C(p,n)$, $^{19}F(p,n)$, $^{27}Al(p,n)$ etc. are used to calibrate energy of the beam with accelerator terminal voltage. Neutrons coming from these experiments can interact with surrounding elements. These interactions with neutrons can create long lived gamma activity which may interfere with future measurements. The present study has been done keeping in mind the new Facility for Research in Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics (FRENA) at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. It is a 3MV tandetron low energy high current machine.