Quantitative treatment of annealing of charged particle tracks in common minerals

Abstract

A semi-empirical approach has been used to obtain an analytical expression for the annealing of charged particle tracks in minerals as a function of time and temperature. The new formalism allows quantitative evaluation of the extent of annealing in samples for any specified temperature and track production history. The validity of the present approach depends upon the applicability of the Arrhenius equation to the process of annealing of nuclear tracks in solids. Laboratory track annealing studies confirm the predictive aspects of the present approach and also the applicability of Arrhenius' equation to track annealing over a wide time-temperature range (5 seconds/1200 K to 5 × 10⁶ seconds/500 K). The present quantitative treatment of track annealing in rock minerals should permit an in-depth study of a variety of problems in meteoritics and earth sciences.