An Independent Determination of the Binding Energy of the Deuteron

This paper is an account of an experiment designed to determine the binding energy of the deuteron by a method which is relatively insensitive to uncertainties in the energy-range relation for protons of low energy. The protons, produced by the disintegration of Th C{''} γ-radiation, were observed in a low pressure cloud chamber in a strong magnetic field. The curvatures of the tracks allowed the calculation of the corresponding kinetic energies. The final value of the binding energy as given by this experiment is V̄B=(2.17±0.05)×10⁶ electronvolts, which is in reasonable agreement with previous determinations by others. The uncertainty 0.05 Mev is the maximum uncertainty to be expected in this value of the binding energy.