NUCLEAR DEALIGNMENT IN GASES

The nuclear dealignment is studied during the slowing down process and after thermolization in different gases by the time differential perturbed angular distribution method. A large fraction of the initial nuclear alignment following the nuclear reaction can be preserved in gases with large moments of inertia, but only a small fraction in monoatomic gases such as the noble gases. The plunger experiment shows that the nuclear dealignment occurs during the slowing down process and not after thermolization.