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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.

Sec. Interdisciplinary Physics

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1677484

Exploring the neutron diffusion system under reflector boundaries via an ansatz approach: Time-dependent solution

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia
  • 2University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This paper analyzes the dynamics of the neutron diffusion kinetic system under reflector boundaries/zero-flux gradient. An ansatz approach is proposed to exactly solve the governing system. The time-dependent solutions are exactly obtained in explicit forms, where spatial variations violate and the temporal behavior dominates the dynamics. Robust physical interpretation is provided for the neutron flux and the precursor concentration under three different cases, supercritical, critical, and sub-critical conditions. A key strength of the study lies in the effectiveness of the solution technique, particularly the use of the ansatz approach, which allows accurate handling of both short-term transients and long-term steady states. The method proves computationally efficient and stable across a wide range of reactivity levels.

Keywords: Neutron diffusion, Partial differential equation, Exact solution, Ansatz approach, reactor physics

Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 El-Zahar, Ebaid and Seddek. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Abdelhalim Ebaid, aebaid@ut.edu.sa

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