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From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider)
Newsgroups: sci.nanotech
Subject: Re: Near abs. 0 for $350
Message-ID: <Jun.11.18.04.16.1991.27731@planchet.rutgers.edu>
Date: 11 Jun 91 22:04:17 GMT
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In article <Jun.10.21.24.58.1991.17976@planchet.rutgers.edu)  dietz@cs.rochester.edu
(Paul Dietz) writes:

...
) Similarly, radioactive decay should also be accelerated by this effect
) if the decayed atom were to be added to an already large
) bose-condensed collection of identical atoms or ions.  This is true
) even for non-electromagnetic decays, since there is nothing that says
) the boson must be a photon.

) One would have to arrange it so that the addition of the decayed atom
) to the bose-condensed state is allowed kinematically; i.e., recoil
) would have to be countered or the decay would have to involve two or
) more particles (for example, beta decay with the electron and neutrino
) emitted with equal but opposite momenta).  This is a serious problem,
) since the energy of the bose-condensed atoms will be extremely small,
) on the order 10^-10 eV or less.  That will lead to a very large
) reduction in the rate of the transition, since most decays would send
) the decayed atom into some other state.  However, "n" is potentially
) very large.

) It would be interesting indeed if a practical means could be found to
) accelerate radioactive decay.
) 
)        Paul F. Dietz
)        dietz@cs.rochester.edu

There is a nice story about this possibility in the July 1991 issue of
Analog, "Ode to Joy" by Dean McLaughlin.

  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms@ncifcrf.gov