Computers and nuclear physics

JUL 01, 1968

Recent developments in both hardware and software hold great promise for effective use of computer systems in nuclear‐physics laboratories. Interaction between physicists and computers is, consequently, being simplified.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3035054

Joel Birnbaum

Martin W. Sachs

TRANSFORMING RAW DATA from a nuclear‐physics experiment into physical parameters and then to a publication follows a fairly universal course. For the past 20 years computers have performed more and more transformations. The first applications were primarily to the last stage, that is, transformation of reduced data into physically meaningful terms. As input and output devices connected to computers become more sophisticated, computers are put to work on more and more additional tasks. Today it is possible to have a computer perform most of the routine tasks in an experiment, perhaps even including the editing of a text for publication.

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References

1. Proceedings of the Conference on the Utilization of Multiparameter Analyzers in Nuclear Physics, L. Lidofsky, Ed. Columbia U., CU(PNPL)‐227 (1962);
Proceedings of the Conference on Automatic Acquisition and Reduction of Nuclear Data, K. H. Beckurts et al., Eds., Gesellschaft für Kernforschung m.b.H. Karlsruhe (1964);
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS‐15, 93 (1968).https://doi.org/IETNAE
2. H. L. Gelernter et al., Nucl. Inst. Meth. 54, 77 (1967); https://doi.org/NUIMAL
IBM Tech. Note TN 21.575‐18;
J. Birnbaum, H. L. Gelernter, in IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS‐15, 109 (1968).https://doi.org/IETNAE
3. C. Broude, R. W. Ollerhead, Nucl. Inst. Meth. 41, 135 (1968).https://doi.org/NUIMAL

More about the Authors

Joel Birnbaum. IBM Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N.Y..

Martin W. Sachs. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, Yale University.