SOLUTION OF THE MARKOV-CHAIN FOR THE DEAD-TIME PROBLEM

A method for solving the equation for the Markov chain, describing the effect of a non-extendible dead time on the statistics of time correl ated pulses, is discussed. The equation, which was derived in an earli er paper, describes a non-linear process and is not amenable to exact solution. The present method consists of representing the probability generating function as a factorial cumulant expansion and neglecting f actorial cumulants beyond the second. This results in a closed set of non-linear equations for the factorial moments. Stationary solutions o f these equations, which are of interest for calculating the count rat e, are obtained iteratively. The method is applied to the variable dea d time counter technique for estimation of system parameters in passiv e neutron assay of Pu and reactor noise analysis. Comparisons of resul ts by this method with Monte Carlo calculations are presented. Copyrig ht (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd