What occurs in a paralyzable counting system when a peak count rate is achieved?

In a paralyzable counting system, when a peak count rate is reached, the system becomes unable to register additional events due to the time it takes to process each detected event. This leads to a decrease in the overall count rate as new events that occur during the dead time of the previous event are not counted.

At peak count rates, the detector is saturated such that the number of incident events exceeds the system's ability to process them. As a result, the detection system cannot keep up, leading to not only a reduction in the rate at which counts are being recorded but also a higher probability of lost counts due to overlapping events.

In summary, once the peak count rate is achieved in a paralyzable counting system, the effect of dead time becomes significant, and the count rate will decrease as fewer events are registered, illustrating the limitations of the system when operating under high activity levels.