Measurement of $γ$-ray production via the neutron-$^{16}$O reaction using a 77 MeV quasi-monoenergetic neutron beam
nucl-ex
/ Authors
Y. Ashida, H. Nagata, M. Mori, G. Collazuol, D. Fukuda, T. Horai, F. Iacob, A. Konaka, Y. Koshio, T. Nakaya
and 7 more authors
C. Nantais, T. Shima, A. Suzuki, Y. Takeuchi, H. Tanaka, R. Wendell, T. Yano
/ Abstract
Understanding of $γ$-ray production via neutron interactions on oxygen is essential for the study of neutrino neutral-current quasielastic interactions in water Cherenkov detectors. A measurement of $γ$-ray production from such reactions was performed using a 77~MeV quasi-monoenergetic neutron beam. Several $γ$-ray peaks, which are expected to come from neutron-${\rm ^{16}O}$ reactions, are observed and production cross sections are measured for nine $γ$-ray components of energies between 2 and 8~MeV. These are the first measurements at this neutron energy using a nearly monoenergetic beam.