The cross section of deuterium gas at liquid air temperature for neutrons of average wavelength 5.43A is found to be 21.3×{}10^-24 cm² per molecule. The cross section of deuterium atoms for neutrons of a few volts is found to be 3.44×{}10^-24 cm² per atom. These two values are used to obtain information on the spin dependence of the neutron scattering by the deuteron. It is found that the two scattering lengths a₄ and a₂, corresponding to neutron spin parallel or antiparallel to the deuteron spin, have the same sign but may differ in magnitude by as much as a factor 2.
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Fermi et al. (1949) studied this question.
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