Identifying Neutron Sources using Recoil and Time-of-Flight Spectroscopy

Abstract

Neutron-source identification is central to nuclear physics and its applications, from planetary science to nuclear security, yet direct source discrimination from measured neutron spectra remains fundamentally elusive. Here, we introduce a Bayesian protocol that directly infers source ensembles from measured neutron spectra by combining full-spectrum template matching with probabilistic evidence evaluation. Applying this protocol to recoil and time-of-flight spectroscopy, we recover single- and two-source configurations with strong statistical significance ($>4\ddot{I}ƒ$) at event counts as low as $\sim 10^3$. These results demonstrate that neutron spectral signatures can be leveraged for robust source identification, opening a new observational window for both fundamental research and operationally driven applications.

13 pages, 7 figures, 1 ancillary file