-----Original Message----- From: mix...@bigpond.com
In reply to Abd ul-Rahman Lomax's message: >1. Cathode wire will be gold, 0.010 inch diameter. Galileo was >silver. Gold is chosen because later SPAWAR work showed much more >neutron evidence with a gold cathode. I'd say that nobody knows why. >But it's neutrons I'll be looking for. I suspect that Au is heavy enough to fission when it occasionally fuses with D, yielding a few excess neutrons. Here is an oldie but goodie, from 1946 http://www.jstor.org/pss/97856 gold irradiated with slow neutrons shows strong activity; and even though it is beta decay in this study, I'd be surprised if the neutrons which show up are not related somehow (spallation from the beta?)
