Measurement of neutron capture on ${}^{136}$Xe

Abstract

${}^{136}$Xe is a 0νββ decay candidate isotope, and is used in multiple experiments searching for this hypothetical decay mode. These experiments require precise information about neutron capture for their background characterization and minimization. Thermal and resonant neutron capture on ${}^{136}$Xe have been measured at the Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE) at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. A neutron beam ranging from thermal energy to greater than 100 keV was incident on a gas cell filled with isotopically pure ${}^{136}$Xe. The relative neutron capture cross sections for neutrons at thermal energies and the first resonance at 2.154 keV have been measured. Additionally, the γ cascades for these captures have been measured, and cascade models have been developed which may be used by 0νββ experiments using ${}^{136}$Xe.

9 pages, 6 figures. This version contains minor updates based on feedback from editors and referees

References in corpus (3)

• Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in ${}^{136}$Xe with EXO-200
• Limit on Neutrinoless ββ Decay of Xe-136 from the First Phase of KamLAND-Zen and Comparison with the Positive Claim in Ge-76
• Cosmogenic Backgrounds to 0νββ in EXO-200

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Demonstration of neutrinoless double beta decay searches in gaseous xenon with NEXT
• Measurement of the neutron capture cross-section on argon
• Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Sensitivity of the XLZD Rare Event Observatory
• Mitigation of Backgrounds from Cosmogenic ${}^{137}$Xe in Xenon Gas Experiments using ${}^3$He Neutron Capture
• Feasibility Study to use Neutron Capture for an Ultra-low Energy Nuclear-recoil Calibration in Liquid Xenon
• Absolute Calibration of the DANCE Thermal Neutron Beam using Sodium Activation
• Neutron inelastic scattering measurements on ${}^{136}$Xe at $E_n$ = 0.7 to 100 MeV