On the Measurability of True Coincidence Summing in Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy

Abstract: We generalize the summing correction formalism of Semkow et.al 1990 into the Semkow Gamma Formalism and extend it into a multiplicity expansion. We use this formalism to calculate the matrix probabilities for 180 degree coincidence events as a method for correcting coincidence summing, and show the deviation between the full correction and this correction as a function of multiplicity. We further extend this to the Partitioned Gamma Formalism, to calculate probabilities for gated gamma rays; where two gammas of interest are taken in multi-detector coincidence. We look at the summing correction that is involved in the gated gammas and calculate deviations in a manner similar to that done to the singles. We define terms such as measurability and ontic and epistemic events and show that within our definitions, coincidence summing is not sufficiently measurable, or rather, its sufficient measurability is statistically bounded by the deviations we derive.