A Measurement of the Interaction of Neutrons With $^{\mathrm{7}}$Be at Cosmological Energies
ORAL
Abstract
We exposed the 4.4 GBq electroplated $^{\mathrm{7}}$Be target prepared at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland to the high neutrons flux of 5x10$^{\mathrm{10}}$ /sec/cm$^{\mathrm{2}}$ generated by the LiLiT at the Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF) in Israel. The so produced quasi-Maxwelian neutron spectrum with an equivalent kT $=$ 49.2 keV simulate directly BBN conditions with T$=$ 700 - 500 MK (kT $=$ 60 - 43 keV), allowing the first measurement at Big Bang energies. The measured alpha-particles emanating from all possible $^{\mathrm{8}}$Be states populated in the $^{\mathrm{7}}$Be(n,$\alpha )$ and $^{\mathrm{7}}$Be(n,$\gamma \alpha )$ reaction, detected with a CR39 plastic track detectors, will be shown and discussed.
*This material is based upon work supported by the U.S – Israel Binational Science Foundation, under award number 2012098 and the US. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Award Number DE-FG02-94ER40870
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