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A5STRAC T.
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of the a+mo .phere may be heate?, no seli-propagatin~ chain of nuclear rFwLCti Q~i6
nssumgtions
. concerning the reactivity of the nitrogen nuclei of tke air. The
t}~]y d~sq~iet~~g feature is t~t the safety factorq, i.e. the ratio Of ~osSeS
whi.~h greatly exceed the bombs now under consideration. but even if bombs
required voluze (i.e., greater thsn 1000 cubic meters; are employed,
further safety f~ctor and will make u chair. reaction in air impossible.
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F.
1., Introduction
.-
with each other. If an ignition point exists and is surpassed, tho thermo-
each newly entered region exceed the losses from that region. The energy
. &Fpears in the farm of the kinetie energy of Particles which are pr~duats of
their energy with the particles of the air an(? help maintain the temperature.
9n the o:her hand, the share of the energy given the electrons is rapidly
,,,
ruliated away. Ahis constitutes the chief energy lass. ~he radiation c&.r.-
afid %ecause, even if the heated volume is great enough to lvoontai.anthe radia-
tlon, the heat capacity of space fo:-ra<iation is so.great that the energy
produced in the reaction is many orders ofmapyit.ude too small to maintain the
. cun assame that the reactio~. ?r~auct partio]es dcl not effectually disperse
. their energy but deposit it where they aro produced. Then Sne can compare this
*
rate of ?evositton with the radiation rate~ The temperature, if such exists,
+.
.
at which the energy production rake equals the racliakive loss rate will be the
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is eifeoted with an Unh9Wli cross seot ion, and 6ince the transfer 5e%ween
.
nuclei which %-;e comparable KWSS is uslalYy more raD~cl than the transfer to
zure rzy be considerably lcw;er Aan the nuolesr temperature and thus increase
.
%.
Tpe ~recg.tt.~gc~nsidsrations will yie?d an evaluation ofthe mrgin
will be devoted to the behavior of a hct air mass OF finite volume and to the
09inprSt~Vf31y little erwrgy. There i~ perhaps one other nucleus that shm~lc! be
@fe9 care!ul attention: tha proton. It.is ordinarily much less abundant in
the atmosphere than is nitrogen, but clouds of steam raised over khe weans by
intense heating, may raciically nltf3r that situation. This danger will be
-.
Tk,e ~,ltroqea-nikro~eflreuctions iriwhich stiffizient er&er4Y is
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In parenthesis foil owing the r~actians are given the heights ofthe Ooulomb
barriers of the prod~.letoarticl es. In a~cor~ with the policy of atiopting the
+
The cross sec$i>n for nitrogen encounters is not knowfi from obi3erva.
.
The geometric cross seccion amounts to just ak=2 barrls. The assumption that
this is a constant cross section for all energies will be referred to as tho
also bo undertaken with the assumption that the geomtric oress section
k
.-
.is reached only at energies surpassing the tarrier height, BZ8.5 WeV, between
nitrogefi nuclei. For relutive energies lower than this barrier height, a
*
CYOSS section proportional to the G~mow penetratiori probability is assumed.
-.
,
.
= (Jk = 2 barns , E >9.6Mev.
.
I .
. .
barns.
.-
the &xwell distribution of the prcid~xt o!cress sestioa anti relative velseity:
e.~94/T1/3
(X) G%lo&(loj~O barns.om/sec (T$O.Z Mev)
. Using the above results for (~) , one obta ins the energy mwi-dction
4.
rnte per nitrogen nucleus :
..
(dE/dtjk = 0.42 ~ (lfcYJ/t.L8fK)
Tin M,v.
wi,th tlx ico~stant cross Sectim assumption. This is also the high-temperature
. Fig. 1 exhibits the variak.ion of the production rate with temperature for the
.
two assumptions.
.
The pGCsible contributions by reactions of proton~ with nitrogen
mtll now be discussed, ~he onYy ones of these yielding enou&h energy to all}w
.
The crass section of & protxm against nitrogen at high energies oannok exceed
th~ > barns asstumd for 1~ + N, sinse tha gwxnetrical cross section zmur is ex-
. .
.
. peeted to be about 1 barn. Xhe ~eometrica] cross section shoul~ persist down
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in such secondary reactiozs will be of the sama order 6s for the proton reactions
prowi~e~t of thct primry Froducts are protons, The arguments of the preceding
par&graph, which iridicated that the proton remtiofis csAnnot add significantly
t,> the energy production attribuke~ to the N~N reactions, are valid also he?e.
Ore has available alsc these edeitionnl facts: the cress section of nitrogen for
noutrvns and for alplti particlec (both typos cf Particlt)s are also products of,
the primary reactions) have beefi measured up tc ecer~i6s of le- Nev. The
,
rosultfi ~b.owwidely spaced resonances which even a+. peak value are only of tho
.-
crder oian eighth of a tarn. This is much less than the two barns attributed to
.
%k.e primary N + X nrocass.
Jn. 8 i p cross sections should not diff~r much from N+ n cro;s sactions, which have
.-
. been measured UD to -1.- Mev. The cxasureaents indicate resonance in ;he cross
, section which even at peek value aru only ofthe crder of ari eighth of a barn.
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correction factora E being the kinetic energ~ of the electrcn. f9r Iuw eneugl-,
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In Fenera),
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For higher temperatures, the relativistic .Maxwell distrikuticn must be used , giving :
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[ (L;6\i{,, ( i;ej .2E, (i;$:.
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The nuclear ant? electron temperatures which wil? co-exist will be given by the
.
equti.kionDf the trer.sfer rate to the !lrcmsstrahlung rate. This yields :
b .
..
0s . )2*otkler hULd the margin of 8afcty teomnes only -2.5 It seems des i~~t~le to
,)
btain a bettor experimental knowledge ~f the reaction cress section even though
k.
.. Thcl temperate to w?,ich air
examining the mechanism of enwgy transfer frm bomb to air. It W;ll kij sufr5-
Cient, ant nl~h less diff~~uli, to discuss the oossibil ities Uf hea t,ing +,he mini. -
. The heating of too smll a volume will add enormously to t he c?ralnti orI
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,>f the ewr~y prodaced. At lenst such u vclume must be heated ifiordar that the
An air sphere ~i $7 meters rfi,iius C:3n&AirIt4 about L(lO)X1 nUel Pj9 anli
.
,y~
7 3(lo)- 91eo trons. For it to ke heated to a nuclear temperature Tn = 10 Xev
\W
(Te= C).~?KISr)requires about. ).5(1G; h!ev of energy.
when working with 100Y. efficieficy. If also all the produced energy goes to
4
nr~dueetile air temper%t~lre, theu 1.5(IO)J Kg of material would have to be
1 %CI the bo~b energy m~y be ~v~ila~le tO prudwe the temperature; the rest
. bomi, becauae its el!e~~!:is not put into radiation as it is within the fission.
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Tk.ea~pareut]y dangerous sltuaticn discu~sed in the precs~ing para-
Severs] further effects exist which may nnke less of the aner~y
le?eksed by bombs available for carryin~ on a reaction in the air. I%erw may be
.
$rit.h palicy
till-l 01 making the most ,:angsro~s assumption wherever any uncert.ain$y
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trons Defore leaving ttie sphere of hot air. In such collisions the quantu will,
on the avera~:e, gain energy from the hct electror,s. The end effect is that
more energy is going into radiation and more omsrgy will become unavailable to
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Wile the above wmccrs may be somewhat in error, th~ quenchir~ must
eventfully take place as Icng as the aetorition wsve is a simplo plane pertar~
btitiar,. Ihere renains the distant ;r~L&bility that some other less simple
One f!!y ccncl;de that the arguments of this paper mke it unreason-
.
able to expect that the N Y N reaction could propagate. An unlimited propaga-
. tion is even ?*s6 likely. However, the complexity of the argument and the
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