Analysis of Triple-Correlation Measurements

Abstract

The formalism for the analysis of angular-correlation measurements of the radiative decay of aligned nuclei is expressed in a manner such as to simplify computational procedures involved in cases where several continuous parameters (multipolarity mixing ratios and population numbers or statistical tensors) and their error matrix must be determined from the experimental data. Two specific analysis procedures are presented. The discussion is based upon triple-correlation formulas which include the possibility of one or more intermediate unobserved radiations in multiple cascades. Parallel developments are presented in terms of population parameters and statistical tensors of the aligned states. It is shown that a statistical-tensor representation leads to a more elegant and convenient formulation for general multiple cascades.