The thermally activated and stress-assisted generation of kink pairs on {110} slip planes of a_0<111>/2 screw dislocations in bcc metals is identified as the origin of the β-relaxation (Chambers-Schultz nomenclature). This identifaction accounts very well for the available data on high-purity transition metals (notably Mo and α-Fe). It explains why foreign interstitial atoms or defects generated by irradiation are necessary for the β-relaxation to occur but do not significantly affect the relaxation process per se.
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