Topic summary
Neutron absorption
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Neutron capture.
Capture cross section
Absorption cross section is often highly dependent on neutron energy. In general, the likelihood of absorption is proportional to the time the neutron is in the vicinity of the nucleus. The time spent in the vicinity of the nucleus is inversely proportional to the relative velocity between the neutron and nucleus. Other more specific issues modify this general principle. Two of the most specified measures are the cross section for thermal neutron absorption and the resonance integral, which considers the contribution of absorption peaks at certain neutron energies specific to a particular nuclide, usually above the thermal range, but encountered as neutron moderation slows the neutron from an original high energy.