Interpretation of pulsed source measurements by the moments method

The amplitude and the phase behaviour of the prompt transfer function for slow frequencies, derived from pulse experiments, lead to a simple calculation of moments, from which the decay constant of the fundamental mode, the amplitude of the delayed neutron tail and a harmonic correction factor for the area ratio of Sjöstrand (1956) can be found. The high sensitivity on the presence of harmonics makes this method very useful for checking the fitting results. Obviously, the moment method is not limited to pulsed neutron experiments. It can be applied to other experiments, which are governed by a single decay constant.