English

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

Nuclear Experiment 2016-09-30 v3 Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

136^{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^{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^{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^{136}Xe.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1605.05794,
  title  = {Measurement of neutron capture on $^{136}$Xe},
  author = {Joshua B. Albert and Sean J. Daugherty and Tessa N. Johnson and Thomasina O'Conner and Lisa J. Kaufman and Aaron Couture and John L. Ullmann and Milan Krtička},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.05794},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

9 pages, 6 figures. This version contains minor updates based on feedback from editors and referees