Abstract: A particle suspension is irradiated with a laser beam, and scattered light from a single particle irradiated in an irradiating zone is detected as a plurality of particle signals. The laser beam in the irradiating zone is formed to be narrower than the diameter of a particle nucleus in the direction of particle flow and wider than the diameter of the particle in a direction perpendicular to the particle flow. The degree of complexity of the particle nucleus is determined from high-frequency signal components contained in one type of particle signal based on side-scattered light from one particle, and the degree of symmetry of the particle nucleus is determined from the magnitude of a difference between two types of particle signals based on side-scattered light from one particle. The degrees of complexity and symmetry of the particle nucleus serve as data for particle analysis.

Abstract: A particle suspension is irradiated with a laser beam, and side-scattered light from a single particle irradiated in an irradiating zone is detected as one or a plurality of particle signals. The degree of complexity of the particle nucleus is determined by extracting high-frequency signal components contained in the particle signal, and the degree of symmetry of the particle nucleus is determined by extracting the magnitude of a difference between this single particle signal and a signal obtained by flipping over the particle signal in terms of time. The degrees of complexity and symmetry of the particle nucleus serve as data for particle analysis.