Inelastic Scattering
In inelastic scattering, the incident neutron is absorbed by the target nucleus, forming a compound nucleus. The compound nucleus will then emit a neutron of lower kinetic energy which leaves the original nucleus in an excited state. The nucleus will usually, by one or more gamma emissions, emit this excess energy to reach its ground state. Figure 17 shows the process of inelastic scattering.

Figure 1: Inelastic Scattering

For the nucleus that has reached its ground state, the sum of the kinetic energy of the exit neutron, the target nucleus, and the total gamma energy emitted is equal to the initial kinetic energy of the incident neutron.