Abstract
IT is known that hydrogen shows a large scattering cross-section for slow neutrons. On the usual assumption that the forces between proton and neutron are of short range, this can only be explained if one also assumes1 that the deuteron has an excited state, real or virtual, the energy of which |W1| is about 50,000 e.v. This leads to the following formula for the scattering cross-section of hydrogen for neutrons of energy E: Here h is Planck's constant, ½ M is the reduced mass of the proton and neutron, and W0 is the binding energy of the deuteron2,3 (cf. also ref. 4) (W0=2.2 × lO6 e.v.). |W1| is defined by the value of for E0 (slow neutrons).
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References
Fermi, Phys. Rev., 48, 570 (1935); Winger, unpublished, cf. Peierls, ” Reports on Progress in Physics”, London, 1935, p. 27.
Chadwick and Goldhaber, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 151, 479 (1935).
Feather and Bretscher, NATURE, 136, 468 (1935).
Ising and Helde, NATURE, 137, 273 (1936); Oliphant, NATURE, 137, 396 (1936).
Chadwick and Goldhaber, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 31, 612 (1935); Amaldi, d'Agostino, Fermi, Pontecorvo, Rasetti and Segrà, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 149, 522 (1935).
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GOLDHABER, M. Scattering of Neutrons by Protons. Nature 137, 824–825 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137824b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137824b0
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