Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe due to the very low refractive index of about 1.0003, particles need tremendous energy to produce Cherenkov radiation in atmosphere. So the demon core flashes (while perhaps some negligible part Cherenkov) were probably mostly just from the ionization of the air, and subsequent nitrogen/oxygen fluorescence.
If my awful phone math is right, you’d need about 21 MeV of energy for an electron to produce Cherenkov radiation. I think the processes producing energetic electrons here (Compton scattering, some pair production, photoelectric effect, internal conversion, delta rays, and Bremsstrahlung cascade I believe) should regularly produce energies around 10 MeV at most (from Compton).
IIRC the flash wasn’t discernable from being the air or the aqueous/vitreous humor in the eye.
I think it’s been hypothesized that the eye jello allows for a much lower energy particle to to create the flash. They do know it’s possible to induce it, but it’s not exactly ethical to test the conditions that created the various criticality accidents to find out.
Oh cool! I hadn’t considered that. The crystallin and vitreous humor in the eye do indeed have a refractive index similar to water, so Cherenkov radiation happens at less than 1 MeV IIRC, so it comes down to how much light would actually be produced in such a small volume. It does seem perfectly feasible!
Again, it’s not easy or ethical to test, but any charged particle interaction with a nerve for instance will possibly trigger an action potential, inducing the “light” that is witnessed. However, this is unlikely given that the optic nerves are pretty well protected.
What is more likely to occur is that a sufficient amount of gamma rays or x-rays ionizing the nerve or nerve sheathe itself and those unstable particles decay into something that releases a charged particle triggering the nerve signal.
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Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe due to the very low refractive index of about 1.0003, particles need tremendous energy to produce Cherenkov radiation in atmosphere. So the demon core flashes (while perhaps some negligible part Cherenkov) were probably mostly just from the ionization of the air, and subsequent nitrogen/oxygen fluorescence.
If my awful phone math is right, you’d need about 21 MeV of energy for an electron to produce Cherenkov radiation. I think the processes producing energetic electrons here (Compton scattering, some pair production, photoelectric effect, internal conversion, delta rays, and Bremsstrahlung cascade I believe) should regularly produce energies around 10 MeV at most (from Compton).
IIRC the flash wasn’t discernable from being the air or the aqueous/vitreous humor in the eye.
I think it’s been hypothesized that the eye jello allows for a much lower energy particle to to create the flash. They do know it’s possible to induce it, but it’s not exactly ethical to test the conditions that created the various criticality accidents to find out.
Oh cool! I hadn’t considered that. The crystallin and vitreous humor in the eye do indeed have a refractive index similar to water, so Cherenkov radiation happens at less than 1 MeV IIRC, so it comes down to how much light would actually be produced in such a small volume. It does seem perfectly feasible!
I heard it’s also possible that the radiation hit your retina and make your neurons go off? Maybe even your visual cortex?
Again, it’s not easy or ethical to test, but any charged particle interaction with a nerve for instance will possibly trigger an action potential, inducing the “light” that is witnessed. However, this is unlikely given that the optic nerves are pretty well protected.
What is more likely to occur is that a sufficient amount of gamma rays or x-rays ionizing the nerve or nerve sheathe itself and those unstable particles decay into something that releases a charged particle triggering the nerve signal.