Abstract
IT is well known that, in such parts of the radioactive transformation series as are not disturbed by β-emissions, the successive α-particles are shot out with ever-increasing energy. The paradox that, although the probability of emission increases so enormously with the energy, it is the slowest particles that first come out, has once again come to the fore now that wave mechanics has led to a theoretical connexion between energy and decay-period. It seems worth while to point out that this difficulty can be very simply explained if we assume that all the α-particles in question are originally in the same quantum state. For if N interacting particles have the total energy NE they will not each fly away with the energy E; it will depend on the nature of the forces acting between them whether the first ones take more than their share or less.
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GAMOW, G. Successive α-Transformations. Nature 123, 606 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123606c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123606c0
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