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Energy and Isotope Dependence of Neutron Multiplicity Distributions

Fission neutron multiplicity distributions are known to be well reproduced by simple Gaussian distributions. Many previous evaluations of multiplicity distributions have adjusted the widths of Gaussian distributions to best fit the measured multiplicity distributions Pn. However, many observables do not depend on the detailed shape of Pn, but depend on the first three factorial moments of the distributions. In the present evaluation, the widths of Gaussians are adjusted to fit the measured 2nd and 3rd factorial moments. The relationships between the first three factorial moments are estimated assuming that the widths of the multiplicity distributions are independent of the initial excitation energy of the fissioning system. These simple calculations are in good agreement with experimental neutron induced fission data up to an incoming neutron energy of 10 MeV.