Experiments with high velocity positive ions VI—The disintegration of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen by deuterons

Abstract

1—The use of transmutation data to establish a “corrected mass scale” has made it important to measure with higher precision, nuclear reaction energies. Using the improved methods described in the preceding paper we have therefore reinvestigated the disintegration of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen by deuterons. Several new groups of particles have been discovered and all the reaction energies determined to within about 0.1 million volts. The new results have been used to correct Bethe’s mass scale and to check the energy balance in the process of positron emission from radio-nitrogen. 2—The Disintegration of Carbon by Deuterons A target of Acheson graphite was bombarded by 2 μA of deuterons of 560 kv energy. The geometry of the apparatus was such that disintegration particles making an angle of 90° ± 6° with the direction of the incident deuterons could enter the counter. The particles were recorded by the double counter described in our paper V and the absorption curve of fig. 1 was obtained, showing the curve obtained by the counters biased to record α-particles and particles of proton ionization respectively.