In reply to Eric Walker's message of Fri, 18 Dec 2015 21:51:47 -0600: Hi, [snip] >Consider, then, the following scenario: > >[- +] [- +] [- +] >[- G1 +] [- G2 +] [- G3 +] >[- +] [- +] [- +] > > >Here G1, G2 and G3 refer to grains of tungsten in the wire, and the >electrons flow from left to right. Suppose there is a preferred direction >for alpha emission (the positive side) and alpha capture (the negative >side). >Hence the distribution of emissions is not isotropic. Presumably >there would be a pile-on effect, where alphas piled up on the left sides of >the grains. > >Would this sufficiently change the odds in seeing mercury in the line >spectra? Note that the field from normal electron flow is absolutely trivial, relative to nuclear reactions. To give an idea, divide the capacitor voltage by the number of grains along the length of the wire, to get the approximate voltage per grain.
However, when the wire explodes, a heavy current will be very suddenly interrupted, leading to a vary large dI/dt as the magnetic field collapses, which will in turn generate high voltages locally. This voltage would likely powerfully accelerate charged particles, and may also affect decay rates. Consider the effect of the collapsing field on the isotropy of the ZPF. (I hope you can, because I can't ;). Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
