Neutron and Gamma Pulse Shape Discrimination by Robust Determination of the Decay Shape

Abstract

Neutron/gamma pulse shape discrimination (PSD) is essential in applications such as radiation source analysis, nuclear material detection, detection of pollutants in the soil and cultural heritage. Neutrons are accompanied by gamma-ray photons due to the interaction with the environment so neutron detectors require some techniques to differentiate them. There are several methods enabling such differentiation. In the current submission, a robust estimation of the decay shape is proposed as a new alternative. To do so, a robust estimator computed by a global optimization method is used. After presenting the theoretical background and explaining the required computations to be realized, the proposed method is tested in a publicly available large dataset. Evaluations of the figure of merit and the positive discrimination rate values are used to assess the degree of improvement attained. A computing code for the method, which is easily adaptable by users to their own datasets, is also provided.