{"id":11465,"date":"2016-01-13T12:08:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T12:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/?page_id=11465"},"modified":"2022-10-13T06:35:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T06:35:16","slug":"interactions-neutrons-matter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/nuclear-power\/reactor-physics\/atomic-nuclear-physics\/fundamental-particles\/neutron\/interactions-neutrons-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Interactions of Neutrons with Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
Neutrons<\/strong> are neutral particles. Therefore they travel in straight lines<\/strong>, deviating from their path only when they collide with a nucleus to be scattered into a new direction or absorbed. Neither the electrons surrounding (atomic electron cloud) a nucleus nor the electric field caused by a positively charged nucleus affect a neutron\u2019s flight. In short, neutrons collide with nuclei<\/strong>, not with atoms.\u00a0A very descriptive feature of the transmission of neutrons through bulk matter is the\u00a0mean free path length (\u03bb – lambda<\/b><\/strong>), which is the mean distance a neutron travels between interactions. It can be calculated from the following equation:<\/p>\n \u03bb=1\/\u03a3<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n Neutrons may interact with nuclei in one of the following ways:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\nTypes of Interactions of Neutrons with Matter<\/h2>\n