Neutron - Noble Gas Scattering Cross Section Measurements on BL05

Abstract

Measurements of neutron - noble gas scattering cross sections were obtained at the low divergence branch of BL05 at J-PARC MLF. For this measurement a recently developed simple small angle scattering set up was utilized to measure the neutron momentum transfer spectra for all of the noble gases of natural isotopic abundance. We found a very interesting discrepancy between our measured value for He and existing values in the literature from neutron interferometry. The n-He scattering process is a few body interaction whose theoretical prediction is in progress, therefore our measurement may provide unique insight for few body nuclear physics.