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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Radiation Detectors and Imaging
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1456472
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Frontiers: Astroparticle, Space Science and Public Health for Future Crewed Space Missions View all 4 articles

Bonner sphere measurements of high-energy neutron spectra from a 1 GeV/u 56Fe ion beam on an aluminum target and comparison to spectra obtained by Monte Carlo simulations

Provisionally accepted
Augusto Di Chicco Augusto Di Chicco 1*Felix Horst Felix Horst 2Daria Boscolo Daria Boscolo 3Christoph Schuy Christoph Schuy 3Uli Weber Uli Weber 3Miroslav Zboril Miroslav Zboril 1*
  • 1 Physical-Technical Federal Institute, Braunschweig/Brunswick, Germany
  • 2 Institute of Radiooncology – OncoRay, Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Dresden, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 3 GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The goal of this work is to characterize the secondary neutron spectra produced by 1 GeV/u 56 Fe beam colliding with a thick cylindric aluminum target and to perform a quantitative comparison with simulated results obtained with Monte Carlo codes. The measurements were performed using extended-range Bonner sphere spectrometers at two positions (15° and 40°) with respect to the beam direction. The secondary radiation field was simulated using four Monte Carlo codes (FLUKA, MCNP6, Geant4 and PHITS) and the several corresponding physical models of nuclei transport and interaction. and nNeutron and proton energy distributions were extracted simulated at for the experimental measurement positions. The simulated neutron spectra, together with data measured with Bonner sphere spectrometers, after carrying out the correction of the contributions induced by the secondary protons, were used as input for the MAXED spectrum unfolding code to obtain the measured neutron spectra. Unfolded neutron spectra were compared with simulated ones to carry out a quantitative analysis of the performance of the chosen Monte Carlo codes and their corresponding physical models. This comparison showed that, because of experimental uncertainties and physical models, there are no unique solutions for each measurement location, but a range of solutions where the true experimental neutron spectra probably lie. The results showed deviations between 4.23% and 8.42% for some simulated spectra. Regarding the total integral values of neutron fluence and ambient equivalent dose, the unfolded neutron spectra showed deviations of lower than 2%.

    Keywords: space radiation shielding1, nuclear fragmentation2, neutron spectrum3, monte carlo4, bonner sphere5, spectra unfolding6, MAXED7

    Received: 28 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Di Chicco, Horst, Boscolo, Schuy, Weber and Zboril. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Augusto Di Chicco, Physical-Technical Federal Institute, Braunschweig/Brunswick, Germany
    Miroslav Zboril, Physical-Technical Federal Institute, Braunschweig/Brunswick, Germany

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