Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays (especially in astronomy, by analogy with X-rays) and denoted

as , is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency (very short wavelength). Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei (gamma decay). Important natural sources are also high-energy sub-atomic particle interactions resulting from cosmic rays. Such high-energy reactions are also the common artificial source of gamma rays. Other man-made mechanisms include electron-positron annihilation, neutral pion decay, fusion, and induced fission. Some rare natural sources are lightning strikes and terrestrial gammaray flashes, which produce high energy particles from natural high-energy voltages. Gamma rays are also produced by astronomical processes in which very high-energy electrons are produced. Such electrons produce secondary gamma rays by the mechanisms of bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation. Gamma rays are ionizing radiation and are thus biologically hazardous. A classical gamma ray source, and the first to be discovered historically, is a type of radioactive decay called gamma decay. In this type of decay, an excited nucleus emits a gamma ray almost immediately on formation, although isomeric transition can produce inhibited gamma decay with a measurable and much longer half-life. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma [1][2] radiation in 1900, while studying radiation emitted from radium. Villard's radiation was named "gamma [3] rays" by Ernest Rutherford in 1903. Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz (or >10 Hz), and therefore have energies above 100 keV and wavelength less than 10 picometers, less than the diameter of an atom. However, this is not a hard and fast definition but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Gamma rays from radioactive decay commonly have energies of a few hundred keV, and almost always less than 10 MeV. On the other side of the decay energy range, there is effectively no lower limit to gamma energy derived from radioactive decay. By contrast, energies from astronomical sources can be [4] much higher, ranging over 10 TeV (this is far too large to result from radioactive decay).
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Nuclear physics
Radioactive decay Nuclear fission Nuclear fusion

Classical decays Alpha decay Beta decay Gamma radiation

Advanced decays Double beta decay Double electron capture Internal conversion Isomeric transition Cluster decay Spontaneous fission

Emission processes Neutron emission Positron emission Proton emission

Capturing Electron capture Neutron capture R S P Rp

High energy processes Spallation Cosmic ray spallation Photodisintegration

Nucleosynthesis Stellar Nucleosynthesis Big Bang nucleosynthesis Supernova nucleosynthesis

Scientists Becquerel Bethe Curie Fermi Rutherford Bhabha Ahmad

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The distinction between X-rays and gamma rays has changed in recent decades. Originally, the electromagnetic radiation emitted by X-ray tubes almost invariably had a longer wavelength than the [5] radiation emitted by radioactive nuclei (gamma rays). Older literature distinguished between X- and gamma radiation on the basis of wavelength, with radiation shorter than some arbitrary wavelength, such 11 [6] as 10 m, defined as gamma rays. However, with artificial sources now able to duplicate any electromagnetic radiation that originates in the nucleus, as well as far higher energies, the wavelengths characteristic of radioactive gamma ray sources vs. other types, now completely overlaps. Thus, gamma rays are now usually distinguished by their origin: X-rays are emitted by definition by electrons outside the [5][7][8][9] nucleus, while gamma rays are emitted by the nucleus. Exceptions to this convention occur in astronomy, where high energy processes known to involve other than radioactive decay are still named as sources of gamma radiation. A notable example is extremely powerful bursts of high-energy radiation normally referred to as long duration gamma-ray bursts, which produce gamma rays by a mechanism not compatible with radioactive decay. These bursts of gamma rays, thought to be due to collapse of stars calledhypernovas, are the most powerful single events so far discovered in the cosmos.