Publisher's Synopsis
Table of Radioactive Isotopes By the Isotopes Project, Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley. The Table of Radioactive Isotopes is a comprehensive and critical evaluation of the nuclear and atomic properties of radioactive isotopes. The book is especially tailored to the needs of applied users in industry, biology, medicine, and other fields, but serves also as an indispensable reference for nuclear physicists and chemists. Detailed radiation data for about 2000 of the 2755 known nuclides are presented in this up–to–date and concise single–volume book. The main section of the book is organized by mass number (A), with entries for a given A derived from and referenced to the most recent corresponding evaluation in Nuclear Data Sheets or Nuclear Physics. These entries include a mass–chain decay scheme, showing the isotopes for that mass number, some of their properties, and the decay relationships between them. Following the scheme are tables for every isotope, the first of which gives the isotope′s atomic number, mass number, element symbol, half–life, decay modes and branchings, mass excess, specific activity, means of production, and natural isotopic abundance. Subsequent tables list the isotope′s nuclear and atomic radiations, and include total average energies per disintegration wherever possible. Throughout, the experimental radiation data have been analyzed for statistical consistency, and the resulting best energies and intensities are reported in the tables. Appendices of interest to users of radioactivity data follow the main section of the book. These include graphs and tables pertaining to the following: fundamental constants and conversion factors, standard gamma–ray and alpha–particle energies and intensities for detector calibration, theoretical internal conversion coefficients, electron–capture subshell ratios, electron binding energies, atomic fluorescence and Coster–Kronig yields, x–ray energies and intensities, Auger–electron intensities, absorption of gamma–rays in matter, ranges and stopping powers of charged particles in matter, positron annihilation radiation, total positron decay branchings, average radiation energies per disintegration, and physical properties of the elements. An extensive introductory section explains the nuclear properties shown on the mass–chain decay schemes, and the contents and structures of the various tables. This is followed by a section, titled Methods of Analysis, which gives a detailed description of the statistical and mathematical formulation used in the data analysis.
