Experimental and theoretical research of photoneutron reactions in the ¹⁸¹Ta nucleus

Abstract Bremsstrahlung fluxes for irradiating tantalum samples were formed by irradiating a tungsten converter with an electron beam having energy up to 130 MeV. The relative yields and flux-averaged cross-sections of multinucleon photonuclear reactions that emit up to nine neutrons in 181 Ta nuclei were determined. Monte Carlo simulations for studying the yields of photonuclear reactions were performed using Geant4 and TALYS-2.0 codes. The obtained experimental results were compared with available literature data and calculated results. The comparison showed that the values ​​of the relative reaction yield and flux-averaged cross-section coincide with the literature data, considering the different geometries of the experiments. The calculated results coincide with the experimental ones only for reactions that emit up to five neutrons from the nucleus.