On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 8:56 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
How far away does another nucleus have to be before the influence has
> dwindled
> to the point that it can no longer share in the momentum of the nuclear
> reaction?
>
> According to Ron, a close nucleus can share, and according to you, one far
> away
> cannot. Where is the boundary line?
>
I see. We seem to need of an equation. ;)
Here I am out of my depth, but I will improvise one, just for the fun of
it. Since we're talking about the disposition of a quantum of energy,
we're talking about a cross section. I'm going to assume that the quantum
cannot be split between a gamma photon and kinetic energy -- the branching
is an all or nothing thing. You get one of the usual branches, or you get
the sharing of momentum. It is the probability of the sharing that we are
concerned about.
It seems like the cross section would drop off with the square of the
distance from the spectator nucleus. Perhaps something like this:
σ(r) = 1/(1 + A*r^2),
where A is a constant that is empirically determined; e.g.,
http://i.imgur.com/eWu4K1i.jpg
Since we're also assuming that the likelihood of the deuterons fusing is a
function of their proximity to the nucleus, because of the delay in the
rebounding time, perhaps the total cross section (purple line) would not be
all that different from the cross section for the kinetic energy branch
(blue line).
Eric
