The Photoneutron Cross Section of Natural Osmium

The absolute (y, xn) cross section of natural osmium is extracted from bremsstrahlung yield curves measured from the lowest (y, n) threshold of osmium isotopes up to 28 MeV in energy steps of 0�2 MeV. The VBPL method of Bramanis et al. (1972) has been used to unfold the cross section from bremsstrahlung yield data. The results do not show evidence of significant amounts of splitting of the giant dipole resonance, as might be expected from the theoretical predictions of Sedlmayr et al. (1974), but at the same time are not inconsistent with their general features.

Resolution of Bremsstrahlung Experiments

This paper investigates how mathematical approximations and statistical errors are transmitted into computed cross sections in the analysis of experimental bremsstrahlung yield data. The resolution of bremsstrahlung experiments is defined in analogy with optical resolution and an expression for the practical evaluation of resolution is derived. Methods of cross-section computation, and smoothing and curve-fitting are discussed.