Measurement of neutron production double differential cross sections for the bombardment of a lead target with 500 MeV/u ⁹Be

Abstract: The neutron production double differential cross sections (DDXs) from a lead target bombarded with 500 MeV/u ⁹Be ions were measured at 5^○, 15^○, 23^○, 30^○, 45^○, 60^○, and 75^○ by the time-of-flight method using organic liquid scintillators. The experimental data were compared with the calculated results from three Monte Carlo codes, GEANT4, PHITS, and FLUKA, coupled with different physical models. The results indicate that all three codes failed to accurately reproduce the DDXs near the beam energy per nucleon at forward directions, but agreed well with the experimental data in the intermediate energy region. In terms of the energy-integrated cross sections, except for the calculated result of GEANT4 at 75^○, the three codes using different physical models were all consistent with the experimental data within a factor of 2.