On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 11:25 PM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote:
I suppose that we should be trying to understand why the normal fusion > paths lead to the emission of a proton or neutron generally with the gamma > as the rare case. There are some very obscure physics going on under the hood. I think, but am not sure, that the evolution of a scattering is described by the nuclear shell model [1]. What I understand of the process is that there are different rates at which different kinds of processes occur. When there are different possible outcomes of a scattering, the outcome of the fastest of the competing processes becomes the most likely. In this context, we have three possible outcomes: - An electrostatic interaction (a la Ron Maimon). - A breakup of the short-lived resonance into fast neutrons, protons, tritons, 3He, etc. - The emission of a gamma. These are sorted from fastest to slowest. Presumably the first process only occurs when an electromagnetic field is sufficiently strong, which would explain why we don't know much about it, since we're most familiar with fusion and fission in the context of plasmas. > You appear to harbor the feeling that coupling to nearby fields might be > the key reason for the vast difference and I likewise wonder. > I would like to think. If Robin has his way, this will not be likely. ;) > What would be a better suppression technique than to eliminate the > generation of the normally energetic gammas in the first place. > I agree. It seems like a losing proposition to try to do anything else to stop them, e.g., to try to play tennis and reflect them somehow. Eric [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_shell_model
