Detailed Investigations of Neutron–Neutron Angular Correlations in Slow-Neutron-Induced Fission of 233U, 235U, and 239Pu

Abstract

An experiment devoted to studying neutron–neutron angular correlations in the slow-neutroninduced fission of ²³³U, ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu nuclei was performed. The experimentally determined angular dependence of the number of neutron–neutron coincidences was compared with the results of a Monte Carlo simulation for various values of the neutron-detection threshold in the range between 490 and 2080 keV. It was found that the experimental angular distributions in question can be described well under the assumption that 2% to 5% of all prompt fission neutrons are emitted isotropically in the laboratory frame. Probably, such neutrons can be interpreted as so-called scission neutrons directly associated with the nuclear-rupture instant. Energy distributions of this component were also obtained from the present analysis.