Monotonicity properties of k(eff) with shape change and with nesting

QC 20100525
It was found that, contrary to expectations based on physical intuition, k(eff) can both increase and decrease when changing the shape of an initially regular critical system, while preserving its volume. Physical intuition would only allow for a decrease of k(eff) when the surface/volume ratio increases. The unexpected behaviour of increasing k(eff) was found through numerical investigation. For a convincing demonstration of the possibility of the non-monotonic behaviour, a simple geometrical proof was constructed. This latter proof, in turn, is based on the assumption that k(eff) can only increase (or stay constant) in the case of nesting, i.e. when adding extra volume to a system. Since we found no formal proof of the nesting theorem for the general case, we close the paper by a simple formal proof of the monotonic behaviour of k(eff) by nesting.

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