Regular Article

Templates of expected measurement uncertainties for (n, xn) cross sections

¹ U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, 21402, USA
² Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA
³ University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA
⁴ University of Dallas, Irving, TX, 75062, USA
⁵ International Atomic Energy Agency, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
⁶ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94551-0808, USA

^* e-mail: vanhoy@usna.edu

Received: 1 May 2023
Received in final form: 15 August 2023
Accepted: 26 September 2023
Published online: 9 November 2023

Abstract

A template is provided for evaluating experimental uncertainties for neutron elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections and γ-ray production cross sections from (n, xn) measurements at laboratories with monoenergetic or white neutron sources. A typical range of uncertainties is presented for experiments detecting the scattered neutrons or the resulting de-excitation γ rays based on a survey of available data and input from many experimentalists and theorists with extensive knowledge in the field. Models commonly used to evaluate the resulting cross-sections are also discussed. Suggestions are made regarding what experimental and uncertainty information is needed for data evaluations and should be included when reporting experimental (n, xn) cross sections. Uncertainty values and correlations are recommended if these values cannot be estimated for past data from the literature.