Comparison of Ramsauer and Optical Model Neutron Angular Distributions

The nuclear Ramsauer model is a semi-classical, analytic approximation to nucleon-nucleus scattering that reproduces total cross-section data at the 1% level for A > 40, En = 5-60 MeV with 7-10 parameters. A quick overview of the model is given, demonstrating the model's utility in nuclear data evaluation. The Ramsauer model predictions for reaction cross section, elastic cross section, and elastic scattering angular distributions are considered. In a recent paper it has been shown that the nuclear Ramsauer model does not do well in predicting details of the angular distribution of neutron elastic scattering for incident energies of less than 60 MeV for 208Pb. However, in this contribution it is demonstrated that the default angular bin dispersion most widely used in Monte Carlo transport codes is such that the observed differences in angular shapes are on too fine a scale to affect transport calculations. Simple studies indicate that 512-2048 bins are necessary to achieve the dispersion required for calculations to be sensitive to the observed discrepancies in angular distributions.