Book Description

The differential cross section for neutron-deuteron elastic scattering was measured at six angles over the center-of-mass angular range 65° - 1300° and incident neutron energies 140 - 240 MeV at the LANSCE/WNR facility of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Witala et al. (H. Witala et al.), Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1183 (1998) have suggested that the differential cross section for nucleon-deuteron scattering at large angles may be sensitive to the presence of a three-nucleon force. In the present experiment, a liquid deuterium target was exposed to the pulsed neutron beam, with incident neutron energy determined by time of flight. Scattered neutrons, detected by a horizontal array of plastic scintillator bars, and recoil deuterons, detected by [delta] E-E (plastic scintillator - CsI) telescopes, were observed in coincidence. The resulting angular distributions for several incident neutron energies are compared with theoretical predictions and previous measurements in both nd and pd systems.