PRECISION DETERMINATION OF THE ENERGY OF THE GAMMA RAY OF POTASSIUM-40

Journal Article · Mon May 11 04:00:00 EDT 1964 · Physical Review (U.S.) Superseded in part by Phys. Rev. A, Phys. Rev. B: Solid State, Phys. Rev. C, and Phys. Rev. D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.134.B506· OSTI ID:4009056

Robinson, B L

The gamma ray of potassium-40 was compared with the 1368-kev line of sodium-24 in a scintillation spectrometer. The lines of yttrium-88 were simultaneously recorded, and linear interpolation between these lines was corrected to bring the sodium-24 value into accord with the accepted standard value. A proportional correction was applied to the interpolated value for the energy of the potassium-40 line. Sources consisted of (i) yttrium-88 mixed with potassium bicarbonate, and (ii) yttrium-88 mixed with sodium bicarbonate, with the sodium activated by a small neutron source. About seven kilograms of bicarbonate were used in each case; to obtain sufficient potassium-40 activity in (i), and to simulate approximately the small= angle Compton scattering in a substance of equal density in (ii). Fullenergy peaks in the pulse-height spectra were fitted to a normal distribution by an iterative method of least squares. With about 100,000 counts in each peak, energy determinations were reproducible to about 0.5 kev. The energy of the potassium gamma ray is 1459.7 plus or minus 1.0 kev. The dependence of the result upon changes in the standards is also given. (auth)

• Research Organization: Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland; and Israel Atomic Energy Commission, Rehovoth
• NSA Number: NSA-18-021273
• OSTI ID: 4009056
• Journal Information: Physical Review (U.S.) Superseded in part by Phys. Rev. A, Phys. Rev. B: Solid State, Phys. Rev. C, and Phys. Rev. D, Journal Name: Physical Review (U.S.) Superseded in part by Phys. Rev. A, Phys. Rev. B: Solid State, Phys. Rev. C, and Phys. Rev. D Vol. Vol: 134; ISSN PHRVA
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ACTIVATION
COMPTON EFFECT
ENERGY
ERRORS
GAMMA RADIATION
LEAST SQUARES
MATHEMATICS
MIXING
NEUTRON SOURCES
NUMERICALS
PHYSICS
POTASSIUM 40
POTASSIUM CARBONATES
PULSES
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
RADIATION SOURCES
RECORDING SYSTEMS
SCATTERING
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SODIUM 24
SPECTRA
SPECTROMETERS
STANDARDS
YTTRIUM 88