Proton Radiography: Cross Section Measurements and Detector Development
Proton radiography has become an important tool for predicting the performance of stockpiled nuclear weapons. Current proton radiography experiments at LANSCE are confined to relatively small targets on the order of centimeters in size because of the low beam energy. LANL scientists have made radiographs with 12 and 24 GeV protons produced by the accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory. These energies are in the range required for hydrotest radiography. The design of a facility for hydrotest radiography requires knowledge of the cross sections for producing high-energy particles in the forward direction, which are incorporated into the Monte Carlo simulation used in designing the beam and detectors. There are few existing measurements of neutron production cross sections for proton-nuclei interactions in the 50 GeV range, and almost no data exist for forward neutron production, especially for heavy target nuclei. Thus the data from the MIPP EMCAL and HCAL, for which our group was responsible, are critical to proton radiography. Since neutrons and photons cannot be focused by magnets, they cause a background “fog” on the images. This problem can be minimized by careful design of the focusing system and detectors. The purpose of our research was to measure forward production of neutrons produced by high-energy proton beams striking a variety of targets. The forward-going particles carry most of the energy from a high-energy proton interaction, so these are the most important to proton radiography. This work was carried out in conjunction with the Fermilab E-907 (MIPP) collaboration. Our group was responsible for designing and building the E907 forward neutron and photon calorimeters. With the support of our Stewardship Science Academic Alliances grants, we were able to design, build, and commission the calorimeters on budget and ahead of schedule. The MIPP experiment accumulated a large amount of data in the first run that ended in early 2006. Our group has almost completed the analysis the forward neutron production data. Large dis-crepancies between our neutron production data and Monte Carlo expectations have been found.
- Research Organization:
- Department of Physics; Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Ann Arbor, MI
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG52-06NA26182
- OSTI ID:
- 975490
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/DE/NA26182-F; TRN: US1003648
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ACCELERATORS
CALORIMETERS
CROSS SECTIONS
DESIGN
FERMILAB
FOCUSING
GEV RANGE
IMAGES
MAGNETS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
NUCLEI
PHOTONS
PRODUCTION
PROTON BEAMS
PROTON RADIOGRAPHY
PROTONS
SIMULATION
TARGETS
neutron production cross sections
proton radiography
Monte Carlos
FLUKA
LAQGSM
MIPP
calorimeters