845 research outputs found
New antineutrino energy spectra predictions from the summation of beta decay branches of the fission products
In this paper, we study the impact of the inclusion of the recently measured
beta decay properties of the Tc, Mo, and
Nb nuclei in an updated calculation of the antineutrino energy spectra
of the four fissible isotopes U, and Pu. These
actinides are the main contributors to the fission processes in Pressurized
Water Reactors. The beta feeding probabilities of the above-mentioned Tc, Mo
and Nb isotopes have been found to play a major role in the component
of the decay heat of Pu, solving a large part of the
discrepancy in the 4 to 3000\,s range. They have been measured using the Total
Absorption Technique (TAS), avoiding the Pandemonium effect. The calculations
are performed using the information available nowadays in the nuclear
databases, summing all the contributions of the beta decay branches of the
fission products. Our results provide a new prediction of the antineutrino
energy spectra of U, Pu and in particular of U for
which no measurement has been published yet. We conclude that new TAS
measurements are mandatory to improve the reliability of the predicted spectra.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Antineutrino emission and gamma background characteristics from a thermal research reactor
The detailed understanding of the antineutrino emission from research
reactors is mandatory for any high sensitivity experiments either for
fundamental or applied neutrino physics, as well as a good control of the gamma
and neutron backgrounds induced by the reactor operation. In this article, the
antineutrino emission associated to a thermal research reactor: the OSIRIS
reactor located in Saclay, France, is computed in a first part. The calculation
is performed with the summation method, which sums all the contributions of the
beta decay branches of the fission products, coupled for the first time with a
complete core model of the OSIRIS reactor core. The MCNP Utility for Reactor
Evolution code was used, allowing to take into account the contributions of all
beta decayers in-core. This calculation is representative of the isotopic
contributions to the antineutrino flux which can be found at research reactors
with a standard 19.75\% enrichment in U. In addition, the required
off-equilibrium corrections to be applied to converted antineutrino energy
spectra of uranium and plutonium isotopes are provided. In a second part, the
gamma energy spectrum emitted at the core level is provided and could be used
as an input in the simulation of any reactor antineutrino detector installed at
such research facilities. Furthermore, a simulation of the core surrounded by
the pool and the concrete shielding of the reactor has been developed in order
to propagate the emitted gamma rays and neutrons from the core. The origin of
these gamma rays and neutrons is discussed and the associated energy spectrum
of the photons transported after the concrete walls is displayed.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, Data in Appendix A and B (13 pages
Accelerating, hyperaccelerating, and decelerating networks
Many growing networks possess accelerating statistics where the number of links added with each new node is an increasing function of network size so the total number of links increases faster than linearly with network size. In particular, biological networks can display a quadratic growth in regulator number with genome size even while remaining sparsely connected. These features are mutually incompatible in standard treatments of network theory which typically require that every new network node possesses at least one connection. To model sparsely connected networks, we generalize existing approaches and add each new node with a probabilistic number of links to generate either accelerating, hyperaccelerating, or even decelerating network statistics in different regimes. Under preferential attachment for example, slowly accelerating networks display stationary scale-free statistics relatively independent of network size while more rapidly accelerating networks display a transition from scale-free to exponential statistics with network growth. Such transitions explain, for instance, the evolutionary record of single-celled organisms which display strict size and complexity limits
Reactor Simulation for Antineutrino Experiments using DRAGON and MURE
Rising interest in nuclear reactors as a source of antineutrinos for
experiments motivates validated, fast, and accessible simulations to predict
reactor fission rates. Here we present results from the DRAGON and MURE
simulation codes and compare them to other industry standards for reactor core
modeling. We use published data from the Takahama-3 reactor to evaluate the
quality of these simulations against the independently measured fuel isotopic
composition. The propagation of the uncertainty in the reactor operating
parameters to the resulting antineutrino flux predictions is also discussed.Comment: This version has increased discussion of uncertaintie
One-dimensional magnetic fluctuations in the spin-2 triangular lattice \alpha-NaMnO2
The S=2 anisotropic triangular lattice alpha-NaMnO2 is studied by neutron
inelastic scattering. Antiferromagnetic order occurs at T ~ 45 K with opening
of a spin gap. The spectral weight of the magnetic dynamics above the gap
(Delta ~ 7.5 meV) has been analysed by the single-mode approximation. Excellent
agreement with the experiment is achieved when a dominant exchange interaction
(|J|/k_B ~ 73 K), along the monoclinic b-axis and a sizeable easy-axis magnetic
anisotropy (|D|/k_B ~ 3 K) are considered. Despite earlier suggestions for
two-dimensional spin interactions, the dynamics illustrate strongly coupled
antiferromagnetic S=2 chains and cancellation of the interchain exchange due to
the lattice topology. alpha-NaMnO2 therefore represents a model system where
the geometric frustration is resolved through the lowering of the
dimensionality of the spin interactions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter
The use of 3D printing in the development of gaseous radiation detectors
Fused Deposition Modelling has been used to produce a small, single wire, Iarocci-style drift tube to demonstrate the feasibility of using the Additive Manufacturing technique to produce cheap detectors, quickly. Recent technological developments have extended the scope of Additive Manufacturing, or 3D printing, to the possibility of fabricating Gaseous Radiation Detectors, such as Single Wire Proportional Counters and Time Projection Chambers. 3D printing could allow for the production of customisable, modular detectors; that can be easily created and replaced and the possibility of printing detectors on-site in remote locations and even for outreach within schools.
The 3D printed drift tube was printed using Polylactic acid to produce a gas volume in the shape of an inverted triangular prism; base length of 28 mm, height 24.25 mm and tube length 145 mm. A stainless steel anode wire was placed in the centre of the tube, mid-print. P5 gas (95% Argon, 5% Methane) was used as the drift gas and a circuit was built to capacitively decouple signals from the high voltage. The signal rate and average pulse height of cosmic ray muons were measured over a range of bias voltages to characterise and prove correct operation of the printed detector
Investigation of the 6He cluster structures
The 4He+2n and t+t clustering of the 6He ground state were investigated by
means of the transfer reaction 6He(p,t)4He at 25 MeV/nucleon. The experiment
was performed in inverse kinematics at GANIL with the SPEG spectrometer coupled
to the MUST array. Experimental data for the transfer reaction were analyzed by
a DWBA calculation including the two neutrons and the triton transfer. The
couplings to the 6He --> 4He + 2n breakup channels were taken into account with
a polarization potential deduced from a coupled-discretized-continuum channels
analysis of the 6He+1H elastic scattering measured at the same time. The
influence on the calculations of the 4He+t exit potential and of the triton
sequential transfer is discussed. The final calculation gives a spectroscopic
factor close to one for the 4He+2n configuration as expected. The spectroscopic
factor obtained for the t+t configuration is much smaller than the theoretical
predictions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, accepted in PR
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