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Temperature Dependent Seasonal Variation of the Background in Counters Used for Radiocarbon Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Sören Håkansson
Sören Håkansson*
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Department of Quaternary Geology, University of Lund, Sweden
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Abstract

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All background values measured in one of our 14C counters during 1977 were analyzed together with corresponding values for atmospheric pressure, outdoor temperature, and coincidence counting rate for investigation of the possibilities to separate the temperature dependency of the background from the better known atmospheric pressure dependency.

The background values were normalized to a common atmospheric pressure and plotted in a time diagram. A seasonal trend with higher background values in winter than in summer shown by this diagram was confirmed by regression analysis.

The regression line and the “Standard error of estimate” was calculated for the background values as a function of the atomspheric pressure, on the one hand and as a function of the coincidence counting rate, on the other hand. A comparison showed that the coincidence counting rate in this case was a better parameter than the atmospheric pressure for calculation of the actual background.

The approximate consistency of the temperature effects on the background was checked for the years 1976 to 1978.

Type
Techniques
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , 1980 , pp. 448 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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