I agree. I was stunned to learn of the disparity at low energies. Accord to the authors of FNP (fast neutron physics), the early researchers using accelerators with energies in the mev class reported parity of the reactions. However, evidently the early thermonuclear fusion investigators working at energies way down low in the tens of kev discovered the disparity.
I quote from page 78 of FNP:
"The most difficult measurements are those performed at the lowest energies (less than 0.5mev). The plethora of earlier data seemed to indicate that both branches proceeded with nearly equal probabilities. Preston, Shaw and Young in 1954 have shown, however, that neutron emission is somewhat more probable than proton emission over the interval 150-450kev...."
I assume that at lower energies still, the thing gets even more lopsided. On page 82 they offer a detailed cross sectional curve for the reaction down to 10 kev and note that the angular distribution of neutrons is asymetric at real low energies, giving an equation and graph for the relative assymetry vs. deuteron energy from 0 volts to 100kev.
Lots o' good stuff here.
Richard Hull
Created on Sunday, December 17, 2000 7:05 PM EDT by Richard Hull