MEASUREMENT OF THE NEUTRON-PROTON DIFFERENTIAL CROSS-SECTION AT 14.1 MEV

A new measurement of the differential cross section for neutron-proton scattering was performed at a neutron energy of 14.1 MeV. The neutron s were scattered from a polyethylene foil and the associated recoil pr otons were observed. Data were taken at 6 angles between 89.7 degrees and 155.7 degrees in the centre-of-mass system. Extensive Monte-Carlo simulations were performed in order to optimize the experimental setup and to reduce the influence of systematical errors. The data were nor malized to the well-known neutron-proton total cross section. The over all uncertainty is about +/-2%. The data are in excellent agreement wi th the prediction of the multi-energy phase shift analysis SM94 of Arn dt and coworkers.