Tuesday 25 February 2020

spectroscopy - What is the spectrum of a nuclear bomb in a vacuum?


This question about 'nukes in space' mentions that the two forms of energy released from a nuclear bomb come from neutrons and photons (the latter about 104 times the former).


It's mentioned that the photons are in the form of X-rays, but what is the actual spectrum of the light emitted? How much of the light comes from



  • the fission (assume pure-fission bomb for simplicity) where 239Pu is split into a mish-mash of lighter elements (is this energy quantized, i.e. has "peaks"?)

  • black-body emission (the results being heated to 10x K; is this continuous or does strange stuff happen at very high temperatures?)

  • extremely short-lived fission products





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