Development of the high-precision neutron elastic scattering measurements using liquid scintillators

For the study of equation of state (EOS), we have developed a new experimental method to determine the neuron skin thickness. The neutron skin thickness in neutron-rich nucleus is now known to be a good measure to constrain the slope parameter L of the symmetry energy in the nuclear matter EOS. Neutron elastic scattering at very forward angles is a powerful tool to determine the neutron root-mean-square radius because it is related to the derivative of the neutron form factor at q² ~0. From our estimation based on the RIA with a RMF density, the radius can be measured with precision of 1% if the experimental error can be reduced within 3% in the case of ²⁰⁸Pb.

For this measurement, we have designed a new experimental setup at N0 course, in Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University. We proposed to use ⁷Li(p, n) reaction for the production of neutron beams, and the TOF method with liquid scintillators for the measurement of the elastically scattered neutrons. Finally, we have performed an experiment of neutron elastic scattering at 4 and 7 degrees.

In this talk, we will report the feasibility of the high-precision neutron elastic scattering measurement. This presentation will focus on the performance of the detectors from the analysis of the obtained data compared with the simulation results using the scinful-cg code [1].



[1] E. Kim, A. Endo, Y. Yamaguchi, J. Nucl. Sci. and Tech. 39, 693 (2002)