Measurement of Neutron-Production Double-Differential Cross Sections for Nuclear Spallation Reaction Induced by 0.8, 1.5 and 3.0 GeV Protons

Neutron-production double-differential cross sections were measured for the spallation reaction induced by 0.8, 1.5 and 3.0GeV protons on C, Al, Fe, In and Pb targets. The experiments were performed by time-of-flight technique with a typical flight path length of 1 m, and the cross sections were obtained with energy resolutions better than 8% at neutron energies below 100MeV. The experimental data were compared with the results of calculation codes based on an intranuclear-cascade-evaporation model. Adoption of the in-medium effect on nucleon-nucleon cross section in the cascade calculation improves the agreement between the calculated results and experimental data particularly in the case of 0.8-GeV proton incidence. For protons above 1GeV, however, the calculations typically twice overestimate the cross sections in the emitted neutron energy region of 10 to 30MeV.