MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Re: Is there visible light from bremsstrahlung without any device?

Date: Wed Nov 26 10:46:38 2003
Posted By: Scott Kniffin, Nuclear Engineer, Orbital Sciences Corporation
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1069584676.Ph
Message:

The answer depends on how convoluted you like being.  The type of radiation
that can be seen without any equipment (and may be what you are thinking
of) is called Cherenkov radiation and is produced when a charged particle
enters a medium in which it is exceeding the speed of light in that medium.
 Bremmstrahlung is radioactive emission from accelerated particles.  So the
answer to your question is a conditional yes: if you can arrange things
such that the bremsstrahlung is a charged particle (preferably an electron)
and it is preferentially scattered into, say a big tub of water in a dark
room where you are sufficiently far away so as to not get irradiated to
death (since a large ammount of glow=lots of ionizing radiation), then yes
you could "see" the bremsstrahlung as it expresses itself as the famous
blue glow via photon emission.  Otherwise, bremm is more or less like any
other radiaiton: you need a detector to see for you.  

The nice folks at CERN have excellent reference pages on both types of
radiation: 

For bremsstrahlung:  http://
rkb.home.cern.ch/rkb/PH14pp/node16.html

For Cherenkov:  http://
rkb.home.cern.ch/rkb/PH14pp/node26.html

Another nice little history of Cherenkov site is:  http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/
Relativity/SpeedOfLight/cherenkov.html

A Google search on either produces more hits than you could read in a day,
but what comentary on Cherenkov would be complete without a picture?  http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_effect

I have a picture of the core of the Maryland University Training Reactor at
low power (beautiful pale blue glow) from my college days.  

I hope I have sufficiently answered your question! 

Scott Kniffin
Code 561.4
Radiation Effects and Analysis Group
Flight Electronics Branch
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 




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