Measurement of the Neutron-Proton Differential Cross Section at 14.1 MeV

Abstract.

A new measurement of the differential cross section for neutron-proton scattering was performed at a neutron energy of 14.1 MeV. The neutrons were scattered from a polyethylene foil and the associated recoil protons were observed. Data were taken at 6 angles between 89.7° and 155.7° in the centre-of-mass system. Extensive Monte-Carlo simulations were performed in order to optimize the experimental setup and to reduce the influence of systematical errors. The data were normalized to the well-known neutron-proton total cross section. The overall uncertainty is about ±2%. The data are in excellent agreement with the prediction of the multi-energy phase shift analysis SM94 of Arndt and coworkers.