Americium? vs. Plutonium via? Neptunium vs. Uranium Daughter XRF.
Part 1: PREFACE
We always see Gamma Rays and X-Rays listed in the decay chain of radioactive atoms. Also Alpha radiation and some sort of Beta radiation.
Alpha and Beta (includes negatrons and positrons, and electron capture) are decay modes of parent atoms, the photons all come from the newly created created daughters. Knowing this often confusing and overlooked fact immensely helps us determine a great deal from our measurements.
The radioactive element (radioisotope)? Gamma Ray Isotope ID?charts and programs list all the electromagnetic emissions from each radioisotope, but some list them all together while others list them as to their origins, for example Gamma Rays (that come from nuclei), and X-Rays (that come from the electron shell area). Older references didn't recognize the origin so listed them by an arbitrary energy limit that to them represented the mythical dividing line between low X-Rays, and higher Gamma Ray energies. In truth there can be Gamma rays at low energies and X-Rays at incredibly high energies. Also in truth the concept of "low" and "high" are misnomers and should be stated as merely lower or higher in some form of reference. If the source is not known, the correct reference to a measured electromagnetic photon in the ionizing range is simply "photon".
Fortunately Gamma Rays and X-Rays come in very precise energies so we can use them to determine the origin but only by comparing to known XRF periodic tables and Gamma Spectrum analysis "catalogs".
Still today there is a great deal of inaccurate information coming from so called learned people RE: X? vs. Gamma Rays
Geo
