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Rubio, B., Gelletly, W., Algora, A., Nacher, E., & Tain, J. L. (2017). Beta decay studies with total absorption spectroscopy and the Lucrecia spectrometer at ISOLDE. J. Phys. G, 44(8), 084004–25pp.
Abstract: Here we present the experimental activities carried out at ISOLDE with the total absorption spectrometer Lucrecia, a large 4 pi scintillator detector designed to absorb a full gamma cascade following beta decay. This spectrometer is designed to measure beta-feeding to excited states without the systematic error called Pandemonium. The set up allows the measurement of decays of very short half life. Experimental results from several campaigns, that focus on the determination of the shapes of beta-decaying nuclei by measuring their beta decay strength distributions as a function of excitation energy in the daughter nucleus, are presented.
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BRIKEN Collaboration(Tarifeño-Saldivia, A. et al), Tain, J. L., Domingo-Pardo, C., Agramunt, J., Algora, A., Morales, A. I., et al. (2017). Conceptual design of a hybrid neutron-gamma detector for study of beta-delayed neutrons at the RIB facility of RIKEN. J. Instrum., 12, P04006–22pp.
Abstract: BRIKEN is a complex detection system to be installed at the RIB-facility of the RIKEN Nishina Center. It is aimed at the detection of heavy-ion implants, β-particles, γ-rays and β-delayed neutrons. The whole detection setup involves the Advanced Implantation Detection Array (AIDA), two HPGe Clover detectors and a large set of 166 counters of 3He embedded in a high-density polyethylene matrix. This article reports on a novel methodology developed for the conceptual design and optimisation of the 3He-tubes array, aiming at the best possible performance in terms of neutron detection. The algorithm is based on a geometric representation of two selected parameters of merit, namely, average neutron detection efficiency and efficiency flatness, as a function of a reduced number of geometric variables. The response of the detection system itself, for each configuration, is obtained from a systematic MC-simulation implemented realistically in Geant4. This approach has been found to be particularly useful. On the one hand, due to the different types and large number of 3He-tubes involved and, on the other hand, due to the additional constraints introduced by the ancillary detectors for charged particles and gamma-rays. Empowered by the robustness of the algorithm, we have been able to design a versatile detection system, which can be easily re-arranged into a compact mode in order to maximize the neutron detection performance, at the cost of the gamma-ray sensitivity. In summary, we have designed a system which shows, for neutron energies up to 1(5) MeV, a rather flat and high average efficiency of 68.6%(64%) and 75.7%(71%) for the hybrid and compact modes, respectively. The performance of the BRIKEN system has been also quantified realistically by means of MC-simulations made with different neutron energy distributions.
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Guadilla, V. et al, Algora, A., Tain, J. L., Agramunt, J., Jordan, M. D., Montaner-Piza, A., et al. (2017). Experimental study of Tc-100 beta decay with total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. C, 96(1), 014319–10pp.
Abstract: The beta decay of Tc-100 has been studied by using the total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy technique at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line facility in Jyvaskyla. In this work the new Decay Total Absorption gamma-ray Spectrometer in coincidence with a cylindrical plastic beta detector has been employed. The beta intensity to the ground state obtained from the analysis is in good agreement with previous high-resolution measurements. However, differences in the feeding to the first-excited state as well as weak feeding to a new level at high excitation energy have been deduced from this experiment. Theoretical calculations performed in the quasiparticle random-phase approximation framework are also reported. Comparison of these calculations with our measurement serves as a benchmark for calculations of the double beta decay of Mo-100.
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Rice, S. et al, Algora, A., Tain, J. L., Valencia, E., Agramunt, J., Rubio, B., et al. (2017). Total absorption spectroscopy study of the beta decay of Br-86 and Rb-91. Phys. Rev. C, 96(1), 014320–10pp.
Abstract: The beta decays of Br-86 and Rb-91 have been studied using the total absorption spectroscopy technique. The radioactive nuclei were produced at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line facility in Jyvaskyla and further purified using the JYFLTRAP. Br-86 and Rb-91 are considered to be major contributors to the decay heat in reactors. In addition, Rb-91 was used as a normalization point in direct measurements of mean gamma energies released in the beta decay of fission products by Rudstam et al. assuming that this decaywas well known from high-resolution measurements. Our results show that both decays were suffering from the Pandemonium effect and that the results of Rudstam et al. should be renormalized. The relative impact of the studied decays in the prediction of the decay heat and antineutrino spectrum from reactors has been evaluated.
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Garcia, A. R., Mendoza, E., Cano-Ott, D., Nolte, R., Martinez, T., Algora, A., et al. (2017). New physics model in GEANT4 for the simulation of neutron interactions with organic scintillation detectors. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 868, 73–81.
Abstract: The accurate determination of the response function of organic scintillation neutron detectors complements their experimental characterization. Monte Carlo simulations with GEANT4 can reduce the effort and cost implied, especially for complex detection systems for which the characterization is more challenging. Previous studies have reported on the inaccuracy of GEANT4 in the calculation of the neutron response of organic scintillation detectors above 6 MeV, due to an incomplete description of the neutron-induced alpha production reactions on carbon. We have improved GEANT4 in this direction by incorporating models and data from NRESP, an excellent Monte Carlo simulation tool developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany, for the specific purpose of calculating the neutron response function of organic scintillation detectors. The results have been verified against simulations with NRESP and validated against Time-Of-Flight measurements with an NE213 detector at PTB. This work has potential applications beyond organic scintillation detectors, to other types of detectors where reactions induced by fast neutrons on carbon require an accurate description.
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