{
  "abstract": "Identifying neutron-emitting materials is central to nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, nuclear forensics, and emergency response, yet remains difficult when several sources contribute simultaneously: relevant fission, $(α,\\text{n})$, and fusion sources emit broad, strongly overlapping energy distributions, and the associated spectral inversion is severely ill-conditioned. Here we demonstrate quantitative identification of mixed neutron fields directly from scatter-based (recoil) spectroscopy measurements, together with simultaneous estimation of the emission rate of each contributing source and a rigorous statistical confidence level for every candidate source combination. Using a compact $21.6\\,\\mathrm{cm}^3$ organic-glass scintillator spectrometer, we correctly identify Cf-252, a deuterium--deuterium (DD) neutron generator, and their mixture with decisive statistical support ($>\\!4σ$), and further resolve a weak deuterium--tritium contaminant in the nominal DD generator field. High-fidelity Monte Carlo simulations spanning exhaustive single-, two-, and three-source mixtures show that identification requires remarkably little information: between $\\mathcal{O}(10^1)$ and $\\mathcal{O}(10^6)$ detected recoil events, set primarily by spectral similarity, mixture complexity, and emission-rate imbalance. For the compact spectrometer used here, this corresponds to acquisition times as short as a few minutes. These results substantially extend the operational reach of simple single-volume neutron spectrometers, enabling rapid, quantitative, and confidence-calibrated attribution of complex neutron fields in field-deployable instruments.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2607.21543",
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "David Breitenmoser"
    },
    {
      "name": "William Heriot"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peter Marleau"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shaun D. Clarke"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sara A. Pozzi"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c6s878v4y1vsp.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2607.21543",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "c6s878v4y1vsp",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.21543",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.app-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.data-an"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.ins-det"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3108|Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7170895360",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.21543",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-24",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c6s878v4y1vsp.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:11Z",
      "native_id": "2607.21543",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.21543"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.app-ph",
      "subfield": "applied-instrumentation"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.data-an",
      "subfield": "computational"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Disentangling mixed neutron fields: multi-source identification from few detected events",
  "title_text": "Disentangling mixed neutron fields: multi-source identification from few detected events",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c6s878v4y1vsp",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}