The effect of capture gammas, photofission and photonuclear neutrons to the neutron-gamma Feynman variance-to-mean ratios (neutron, gamma and total)

Paper in proceeding, 2015

Two versions of the neutron-gamma variance-to-mean (Feynman-alpha) formula for separate gamma detection and total neutron-gamma detection were recently derived and evaluated by Chernikova, et. al. [1]. However, the neutrons and gammas emitted in a photofission reaction or the release of gammas in certain thermal neutron capture reactions were not included in the theoretical models of Chernikova, et. al. [1]. In this paper, in order to evaluate the influence of these type of reactions to the values the neutron-gamma Feynman variance-to-mean ratios (neutron, gamma and total), we derive the enhanced Feynman-alpha formulae for separate neutron, gamma detection and total neutron-gamma detections. The theoretical derivation is based on the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation with inclusion of general reactions, photofission and capture gammas. The quantitative evaluation of the effect of capture gammas and photonuclear neutrons to the neutron-gamma Feynman variance-to-mean ratios (neutron, gamma and total) is done by using reaction intensities obtained from MCNPX simulations. The new enhanced formulas and their impact to the final values of different variance-to-mean ratios are the main subject of the discussion in the present paper.