Nuclear reaction studies

Abstract

The phenomenon of nuclear photodisintegration was demonstrated first by Chadwick and Goldhaber (Ch 35) who ruptured the nuclear bond between the proton and neutron by irradiating deuterium with the 2.62 MeV Y-rays from a ThCn source. Later, extensive photonuclear studies, chiefly using high energy bremsstrahlung Y-ray beams, established the existence and broad characteristics of the most striking feature of nuclear absorption of electromagnetic radiation, viz. the so-called giant resonance in the absorption cross-section. Although bibliographies (e.g. To 63) and review articles (e.g. St 33, Le 54, Ti 55, Bi 57, De 57, De 59, Wi 59, Le 60, Fu 62, Ha 63) provide detailed summaries of the nuclear photo-effect and the giant resonance exhibited, a brief account of the experimental results and theoretical interpretations will prove useful to introduce the experiments described in Chapters II and III.