CHAPTER IV - Remarks on Conversion Electron-Gamma Directional Correlations

Abstract

The analysis of directional correlations involving conversion electrons is based on the gamma-gamma directional correlation theory, and it is also supplemented with the theory of the internal conversion process. The objections against electron-gamma correlations are the experimental difficulties involved in the measurements. Scattering of the conversion electrons in the source may attenuate the directional correlation. This chapter emphasizes the aspects of conversion electron directional correlations, which differ from gamma-gamma correlations and open up new possibilities for experimental inquiry. The theory of directional correlations involving conversion electrons is based on quantum electrodynamics. Several nuclear properties not available for experimental inquiry in any alternative way may be studied by the conversion electron directional correlation method. The use of a magnetic spectrometer for directional correlation studies offers many advantages and renders experimental studies feasible in many cases where the more conventional gamma-gamma correlation method leads to ambiguous results or even to results that are impossible to interpret in any meaningful way.