NEAR: A New Station to Study Neutron-Induced Reactions of Astrophysical Interest at CERN-n_TOF

We present NEAR, a new experimental area at the CERN-n_TOF facility and a possible setup for cross section measurements of interest to nuclear astrophysics. This was recently realized with the aim of performing spectral-averaged neutron-capture cross section measurements by means of the activation technique. The recently commissioned NEAR station at n_TOF is now ready for the physics program, which includes a preliminary benchmark of the proposed idea. Based on the results obtained by dedicated Monte Carlo simulations and calculation, a suitable filtering of the neutron beam is expected to enable measurements of Maxwellian Averaged Cross Section (MACS) at different temperatures. To validate the feasibility of these studies we plan to start the measurement campaign by irradiating several isotopes whose MACS at different temperatures have recently been or are planned to be determined with high accuracy at n_TOF, as a function of energy in the two time-of-flight measurement stations. For instance, the physical cases of 88Sr(n,γ ), 89Y(n,γ ), 94Zr(n,γ ) and 64Ni(n,γ ) are discussed. As the neutron capture on 89Y produces a pure β -decay emitter, we plan to test the possibility to perform activation measurements on such class of isotopes as well. The expected results of these measurements would open the way to challenging measurements of MACS by the activation technique at n_TOF, for rare and/or exotic isotopes of interest for nuclear astrophysic

NEAR at n_TOF/CERN: Preparing the first multi-foil activation measurement

The n_TOF facility at CERN is a neutron Time-Of-Flight facility based on a spallation neutron source. During the Second Long Shutdown (LS2) , a new experimental zone was designed and delivered. This new experimental area -the NEAR station - is located very close to the lead spallation target, at a distance of just ~3m. In this way, the high luminosity of the n_TOF neutron spallation source can be fully exploited. Towards the characterization of the new experimental area as well for the benchmarking of the performed simulations, the multi-foil activation measurement will be implemented. Eleven threshold and seven capture reference reactions will be utilized for the unfolding of the NEAR neutron beam energy spectrum that stretches from the meV to the GeV region

Preparing Phase 4 of the n_TOF/CERN facility

After CERN's Long Shutdown 2, the n_TOF facility infrastructure was largely upgraded. The biggest change is the installation of a new lead spallation target, the performance of which needs to be carefully examined. During Summer 2021, the facility's two flight paths were characterised in terms of neutron beam energy distribution, profile and resolution. In this work, the characterisation of the facility is described and the first results are given