SIMULATION OF THE RADIOACTIVE DECAY PROCESS: STATISTICAL APPROACH

Abstract

An important role in modern conditions in the study of physics in universities is played by the need to form students’ experimental competence, including using information and communication technologies. One of the possible directions is the development and application of virtual computer simulations. The main advantages and disadvantages of using such models in the study of physics are considered. The proposed virtual computer simulation of radioactive radiation real-time registration setup takes into account the main statistical patterns of radioactive decay. The basis of this work is the calculation of the number of detector activations in short time intervals that obey the Poisson distribution. The application was developed in the Delphi programming language. The interface of this application and its main features are described. The main problems related to the need of real-time work of the mentioned application and ways to solve them are listed. The results of a virtual experiment are presented, during which the number of registered pulses in 10 seconds was determined 200 times. Two series of experiments were conducted, corresponding to an average of 4.6 pulses and 46 pulses in 10 s. Based on the results of the experiment, the average number of pulses in the same time and their absolute errors were determined. The obtained numbers coincide within the error limits with the data embedded in the application. According to the experimental data, a histogram of the number of events n k k corresponding to certain numbers of pulses k was constructed. The obtained data is matched with the results of calculations based on the Poisson distribution. It is demonstrated that in the second case a Poisson distribution turns into a Gaussian distribution. In general, the analysis of the results shows the correctness of the application for simulation of radioactive radiation registration setup. The prospects of the presented methodology in further development for the creation of other real-time simulation are described.