Scintillation efficiency of liquid argon in low energy neutron-argon scattering

Experiments searching for weak interacting massive particles with noble gases such as liquid argon require very low detection thresholds for nuclear recoils. A determination of the scintillation efficiency is crucial to quantify the response of the detector at low energy. We report the results obtained with a small liquid argon cell using a monoenergetic neutron beam produced by a deuterium-deuterium fusion source. The light yield relative to electrons was measured for six argon recoil energies between 11 and 120 keV at zero electric drift field.

Shower approach in the simulation of ion scattering from solids

An efficient approach for the simulation of ion scattering from solids is proposed. For every encountered atom, we take multiple samples of its thermal displacements among those which result in scattering with high probability to finally reach the detector. As a result, the detector is illuminated by intensive “showers,” where each event of detection must be weighted according to the actual probability of the atom displacement. The computational cost of such simulation is orders of magnitude lower than in the direct approach, and a comprehensive analysis of multiple and plural scattering effects becomes possible. We use this method for two purposes. First, the accuracy of the approximate approaches, developed mainly for ion-beam structural analysis, is verified. Second, the possibility to reproduce a wide class of experimental conditions is used to analyze some basic features of ion-solid collisions: the role of double violent collisions in low-energy ion scattering; the origin of the “surface peak” in scattering from amorphous samples; the low-energy tail in the energy spectra of scattered medium-energy ions due to plural scattering; and the degradation of blocking patterns in two-dimensional angular distributions with increasing depth of scattering. As an example of simulation for ions of MeV energies, we verify the time reversibility for channeling and blocking of 1-MeV protons in a W crystal. The possibilities of analysis that our approach offers may be very useful for various applications, in particular, for structural analysis with atomic resolution.

Goal-oriented self-adaptive hp-strategies for finite element analysis of electromagnetic scattering and radiation problems

In this paper, a fully automatic goal-oriented hp-adaptive finite element strategy for open region electromagnetic problems (radiation and scattering) is presented. The methodology leads to exponential rates of convergence in terms of an upper bound of an user-prescribed quantity of interest. Thus, the adaptivity may be guided to provide an optimal error, not globally for the field in the whole finite element domain, but for specific parameters of engineering interest. For instance, the error on the numerical computation of the S-parameters of an antenna array, the field radiated by an antenna, or the Radar Cross Section on given directions, can be minimized. The efficiency of the approach is illustrated with several numerical simulations with two dimensional problem domains. Results include the comparison with the previously developed energy-norm based hp-adaptivity.

A canonical UTD solution for electromagnetic scattering by an electrically large impedance circular cylinder illuminated by an obliquely incident plane wave

A uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) solution is developed for the canonical problem of the electromagnetic (EM) scattering by an electrically large circular cylinder with a uniform impedance boundary condition (IBC), when it is illuminated by an obliquely incident high frequency plane wave. A solution to this canonical problem is first constructed in terms of an exact formulation involving a radially propagating eigenfunction expansion. The latter is converted into a circumferentially propagating eigenfunction expansion suited for large cylinders, via the Watson transform, which is expressed as an integral that is subsequently evaluated asymptotically, for high frequencies, in a uniform manner. The resulting solution is then expressed in the desired UTD ray form. This solution is uniform in the sense that it has the important property that it remains continuous across the transition region on either side of the surface shadow boundary. Outside the shadow boundary transition region it recovers the purely ray optical incident and reflected ray fields on the deep lit side of the shadow boundary and to the modal surface diffracted ray fields on the deep shadow side. The scattered field is seen to have a cross-polarized component due to the coupling between the TEz and TMz waves (where z is the cylinder axis) resulting from the IBC. Such cross-polarization vanishes for normal incidence on the cylinder, and also in the deep lit region for oblique incidence where it properly reduces to the geometrical optics (GO) or ray optical solution. This UTD solution is shown to be very accurate by a numerical comparison with an exact reference solution.

Analysis of Neutron Thermal Scattering Data Uncertainties in PWRs

Analysis of Neutron Thermal Scattering Data Uncertainties in PWRs

A new UTD for the electromagnetic plane wave scattering by a canonical circular cylinder with an impedance boundary condition

A UTD solution is developed for describing the scattering by a circular cylinder with an impedance boundary condition (IBC), when it is illuminated by an obliquely incident electromagnetic (EM) plane wave. The solution to this canonical problem will be crucial for the construction of a more general UTD solution valid for an arbitrary smooth convex surface with an IBC, when it is illuminated by an arbitrary EM ray optical field. The canonical solution is uniformly valid across the surface shadow boundary that is tangent to the surface at grazing incidence. This canonical solution contains cross polarized terms in the scattered fields, which arise from a coupling of the TEz and TMz waves at the impedance boundary on the cylinder. Here, z is the cylinder axis. Numerical results show very good accuracy for the simpler and efficient UTD solution, when compared to exact but very slowly convergent eigenfunction solution.

Thermal Scattering Libraries Processing (F4E, Task 6.2)

Presentación del trabajo realizado en el marco del proyecto F4E, sobre el procesamiento de librerías de dispersión térmica de neutrones en formato ACE para su uso con el código MCNP. Se presentan tanto los métodos y procedimientos empleados, como los resultados y diferencias entre las distintas fuentes de datos.