Neutron-Activation Analysis

    The neutron-activation analyses of the bullets and fragments from the JFK assassination have provided some of the most important and powerful data from the entire assassination. These data, preceded by the indeterminate optical emission spectroscopy data of the FBI, have been misunderstood since they were first made public in 1975. The new NAA report of March 2001 aims to clear up the confusion. Its companion work, the annotated compendium of 1998, provides additional details on how the JFK community has misused the NAA data over the years.

Neutron Activation and the JFK Assassination (K. A. Rahn, March 2001—Greatly expanded from previous version)

Art Snyder's May 2001 note on K. A. Rahn's March 2001 monograph on NAA (.pdf file)
Reply to Art Snyder's note

Critique of the earlier essay by Arthur Snyder of SLAC, Stanford University (Now obsolete)

Annotated Compendium of Published Comments on Neutron Activation and the JFK Assassination (K. A. Rahn, 1998)

Diagram of the two groups of bullet fragments as determined by the FBI's 1964 neutron-activation analysis (JPEG image)

Why the Fragments Weren't Planted (K. A. Rahn, 30 August 2001)
    The most detailed discussion available on why the bullet fragments tested by NAA were not planted, as many critics have claimed. It turns out that there are major roadblocks to every line of reasoning as to why they might have been planted. In the end, they could not have been planted in the short time allowed, and the probabilities of matching the antimony in the fragments by accident confirm that it didn't happen. Settling the issue of planting opens the doors wide to the full power of the NAA and leads to exceedingly strong conclusions about the simple, straightforward assassination.

What Follows From The Fragments? (K. A. Rahn, 31 August 2001)
    The genuineness of the fragments validates the rest of the physical evidence and settles the major events of Dealey Plaza. The fragments are thus becoming the major piece of evidence in the assassination, displacing much or most of the medical evidence.

Frequency distributions of Sb concentrations (for research purposes)
    List of links, brief description

Critique of Joe Biles's article on NAA (K. A. Rahn, April 2002)

Neutron Activation and the JFK Assassination (PowerPoint talk given by K.A. Rahn at the Pittsburgh Symposium, 23 November 2003)

The Harmony of the Physical Evidence (PowerPoint talk given by K.A. Rahn at the AARC symposium in Washington, 18 September 2004)

Review of Randich and Grant's July 2006 article on NAA in the Journal of Forensic Sciences

Review of Spiegelman et al.'s article on NAA in the journal Annals of Applied Statistics