🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <24761@dog.ee.lbl.gov> sichase@csa3.lbl.gov writes:
>For nuclei which decay by K capture, the decay rate is sensitive to the
>electronic structure of the atom.  This is obvious, because any capture
>matrix element will have to include the electron's wave function.  So if
>you take such an atom and bind it in a molecule so that it's electronic
>orbitals are perturbed, you affect the decay rate of the nucleus.
>
>You can look up the details in Segre's book _Nuclei and Particles_.  The
>effect has been experimentally verified.  Although I don't know if it has
>ever been done, you can easily imagine that very high pressures will also
>change the decay rate of a solid lump of such an element, for the same 
>reasons.

It's been done, for the astrophysically-important K-capturer beryllium 7.  Bill
Bassett's group at the University of Rochester (geochemists, not 
astrophysicists) did some work on this in the early 1970s, by which time it was
already a well-known phenomenon.  There are a few other cases that have been
reported in the literature, notably holmium-163, an *N*-shell capturer that is
particularly sensitive to environmental effects and again of astrophysical
interest as a result.

I have no idea what the original poster's "invention" is, and to put it mildly,
I am suspicious of it.  The broader question of environmental perturbation of
radioactive decay arises here (and also in sci.chem) every now and then; maybe
it would be a useful thing to add to the FAQ list.  I may try to put something
together that fits the bill.  In the interim, the standard (if rather dated)
review article on the subject is G. T. Emery, "Perturbation of Nuclear Decay
Rates," Annual Review of Nuclear Science vol. 22, pp. 165-202 (1972).  (I told
you it was rather dated ...)  Maybe the original poster should read this paper
and find out if the "invention" has been anticipated. :-) 1/2

-- 
Bill Johnson				| "This is a bit complicated, so let
Los Alamos National Laboratory		| me explain it backwards."  (first
Los Alamos, New Mexico USA		| line of a memo from a fellow Los
!cmcl2!lanl!mwj (mwj@lanl.gov)		| Alamos physicist who will go unnamed)