Principle of single and multiple time interval analysis applicable to radioactive nuclides with half-lives of millisecond order

Abstract

A delayed coincidence method has been developed for the selective extraction of radionuclides with half-lives of millisecond order using a personal computer. The time interval analysis is fundamentally based on the distinction of the time interval distribution between the correlated and random events, which arise from radioactive disintegration and/or background events within a certain fixed time. Theoretical functions of a time spectrum or a time distribution curve were dealt with from aspects of statistical treatments consisting of a single time interval analysis and a multiple one (STA and MTA). The theoretical equations obtained were used to simulate time spectra on the assumption of some ideal data and compared with the experimental results. Conclusively, the MTA method has been verified to be more suitable for the selective extraction of the objective correlated events from random or background events for the search of radioactive nuclides with millisecond life-times.