Neutron resonance spectroscopy: Ta

Results of high resolution neutron time of flight spectroscopy on natural tantalum (99.988% ${}_{}{}^{181}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ta},I^{\pi }=\frac{7}{2^{+}}$) are presented for $l=0\mathrm{}$ resonances to 2025 eV. Values of $E$ and $g{\Gamma }_n^0$ are presented for 431 resonances, in addition to the three resonances below 15 eV. A Bayes analysis suggests that no $p$ wave levels have been included. The analysis used a multilevel Breit-Wigner shape fitting to the measured transmission curves for three different sample thicknesses. Doppler broadening and potential-resonance interference effects were included, plus some simulation of the experimental resolution effects. The analysis gives $〈S〉=(4.17\mathrm{}\pm 0.04)$ eV for the mean level spacing, and ${10}^4{S}_0=(1.68\mathrm{}\pm 0.11)$ for the $l=0\mathrm{}$ strength function.