Influence of the Rotational Levels on the Scattering of Slow Neutrons by Gaseous Methane

Abstract

The partial differential cross section for gaseous methane has been computed at incident neutron energies of 0.015 ev and 0.0252 ev at scattering angles of 16.3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and 26.0\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}. It is found that the quantum nature of the rotational levels has a marked effect on the scattering of neutrons. By comparing the results of these computations with the results of the experiments, it is demonstrated that this effect has also been observed in the experiments.