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My father was a nuclear physicist. Here is a report he wrote the year I was born (recently declassified and posted on the web). I studied physics in college, but um…when I read this abstract, I think airplane design is a little easier to understand.
My dad was the sweetest man you could ever meet, but he was also a bit of a mad scientist.
Optical-Model Analysis of High-Energy Neutrons Scattered by Deformed Nuclei
Authors:
Corman, E. Gary
Affiliation:
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, California
Publication:
Physical Review, vol. 125, Issue 1, pp. 359-365
Publication Date:
01/1962
Origin:
APS
Abstract Copyright:
(c) 1962: The American Physical Society
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRev.125.359
Bibliographic Code:
1962PhRv..125..359C
Abstract
This work investigates the effects of target nuclear deformations upon the high-energy differential elastic and rotational excitation cross sections for neutron scattering. An optical-model potential of cylindrically symmetrical ellipsoidal shape is used to represent the target nucleus. The deformed potential is first oriented parallel to each of the coordinate axes. The differential cross sections are evaluated and averaged over such orientations. Next, the potential is oriented at an arbitrary angle. The differential cross section is evaluated and averaged over all possible orientation angles. The foregoing averaged cross sections are compared with the cross sections obtained by assuming spherical nuclei for the cases of aluminum and lutetium. Third, differential cross sections with the simultaneous excitations of the target nucleus to higher rotational levels are investigated. Results of calculations are shown for a nucleus having the dimensions of lutetium in initial I=0 and I=7 spin states. Fourth, the cross section and polarization are investigated by assuming a spin-orbit interaction added to the central deformed potential. It is found that for an arbitrary nuclear orientation the polarization generally has a component parallel to the scattering plane. However, such a component vanishes upon averaging over orientations.
Translation, please?
Randy,
Could you possibly translate this into Randy-speak?
Don & Susan
🙂
Re: Translation, please?
All I can really do is tell you how I would handle this report now, as an engineer, if my Dad were presenting it to me today.
I would say something like…”Dr. Corman, that is simply fascinating! Now, can you tell me how I can use this to turn a drive shaft? I know there must be a way to do it, and you sir are just the one to tell me.”
Of course, this is the difference between being a scientist (like my dad) and an engineering manager (like me). 🙂
Seriously, while most of my father’s work remains classified, it was common public knowledge that the advanced theoretical physics teams at Lawrence Livermore Lab were supporting both the arms race and potential fusion power (and to a lesser extent the fission power that is used in today’s nuclear reactors, but that was already pretty well understood.) My dad and most his colleagues were delighted to see the arms race de-escalated (we won!); from press releases I know that the remaining teams at Lawrence Livermore tend to be primarily focussed on clean energy sources, other laser applications, nuclear waste disposal, and tracking the world-wide nuclear threat. And of course, I’m sure they retain a core competency for nuclear weapons…but you could torture me all year, and I still could not tell you anything about how they work.
Your post about your Dad brought back fond memories of mine. My Dad got his doctorate in physics, was an electrical engineer at Boeing, was quite the inventor and there was a bit of the mad scientist too. There was always some kind of experiment going on in the house. My favorite was the Tesla coil my Dad and older brothers made. Plug that in and it would zap all over and I expected Boris Karloff to show up! After both parents passed we donated the infamous Tesla coil to a local science teacher to use in the classroom. 🙂
I bet you’ve made your parents very proud!
Elizabeth