Abstract
SOME time ago, experiments were made, in collaboration with Dr. L. H. Gray, in which the scattering of neutrons by various materials was detected, with the aid of a high-pressure ionisation chamber containing nitrogen1. The results were on the whole compatible with the view that the observed ionisation was due to neutrons scattered in all directions by elastic collisions with nuclei, and various experimenters have confirmed this2. Measurements made with paraffin wax and liquid hydrogen (the latter kindly provided by Dr. P. Kapitza) showed, however, the surprising result that radiation was freely emitted at angles of 120°–180° to the direction of the incident neutrons. It is clearly impossible for neutrons to be scattered at angles greater than a right angle by single elastic collisions with protons, and calculation shows that multiple scattering cannot explain the observed effects.
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References
Chadwick, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 136, 704 ; 1932.
de Broglie, C. R., 194, 1616 ; 1932. Dunning and Pegram, Phys. Rev., 43, 497 ; 1933.
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LEA, D. Combination of Proton and Neutron. Nature 133, 24 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133024a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133024a0
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