Nuclear Physics and Radiation Detectors

P4H 424 Course, Candlemas 2004

Nuclear Physics Lecture 2
Dr Ralf Kaiser

Room 514, Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of Glasgow
r.kaiser@physics.gla.ac.uk

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.1/23

 Summary

Global Properties of Nuclei cont.

Liquid Drop Model

http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/~kaiser/

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.2/23

 Date/Time Change

No lecture on Thursday 22.1.

instead lecture on Tuesday 27.1.
11:00, room 222

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.3/23

 Separation Energies
The neutron and proton separation energies are the equivalent
of the ionisation energies in atomic physics.
The neutron separation energy is the amount of energy



 
needed to remove a neutron from a nucleus , equal to the





 
difference in binding energies between and :



 




 
  






 

 

 

!

#"

% $
  


&
 








The proton separation energy is similarly defined as the
' (
energy to remove a proton:
  * 
   

  
    
   
)

  

 




+"

!%/ $
.-, 

&



P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.4/23

 Nuclear Stability

Stable nuclei only occur in a very narrow band in the Z-N

plane. All other nuclei are unstable and decay spontaneously
in various ways.
Isobars with a large surplus of neutrons gain energy by
converting a neutron into a proton (plus an electron ), while

in the case of a surplus of protons the inverse reaction may
occur: the conversion of a proton into a neutron (and a
"

positron ). These reactions are called -decays and are

manifestations of the weak interaction.
To conserve the lepton number also electron-neutrinos or
electron-antineutrinos are produced.
Other decays include -decays and spontaneous fission. (To

fission we will get back later.)

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.5/23

 Nuclear Stability

iss ion
β- stable nuclides u s f
neo
n t a
spo

p- unstable

n- unstable

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.6/23

 Nuclear Spin
For each nucleon orbital angular momentum and spin

combine to the total angular momentum . The total angular


momentum of a nucleus is therefore the vector sum of the


angular momenta of the nucleons:


odd-A: half-integer I, even-A: integer I











The angular momentum has all of the usual properties of


quantum mechanical angular momentum vectors:









 















Magnetic fields that would be sufficient to break the coupling of
the nucleons cannot be produced. As a result the nucleus
behaves as if it were only a single ’spinning’ particle.
The total angular momentum is usually referred to as nuclear


spin and the corresponding spin quantum number is used to


describe nuclear states.
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.7/23
 Parity
The parity operator causes a reflection of all of the coordinates
through the origin: .


The parity can take the values ’+’ (even) or ’-’ (odd).
If we knew the wave function of every nucleon, we could
determine the nuclear parity by multiplying together the


parities of each of the A nucleons:











But we don’t.
Parity can be measured experimentally through a variety of
nuclear decays and reactions. Like the spin it can be


regarded as a global property of the nucleus.
Spin and parity are usually used together to denote a nuclear
" 
"

state as . Examples are , , .




P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.8/23

 Nuclear Electromagnetic Moments
The nucleons inside a nucleus represent a charge and current
distribution that produces electric and magnetic fields.
Depending on their characteristic spatial dependence these
fields can be classified according to electromagnetic multipole


moments: - monopole or zeroth moment, - dipole or





first moment, - quadrupole or second moment, ...


Parity of multipole moment of order :





electric moments





"



magnetic moments



Expectation value of multipole operator :




for negative parity of









Therefore all odd-parity multipole moments must vanish -

electric dipole, magnetic quadrupole, electric octupole, etc.
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.9/23
 Nuclear Models
A model is not the reality. It frequently works by simplification
and/or by transferring ideas from one (usually older) part of
physics to another one. It explains certain aspects of reality
and may allow predictions.
When you hear the word ’proton’ you probably think about
something very small but otherwise rather like a billiard ball.
You might even imagine it in a particular colour (for me
personally protons are red, neutrons black and electrons blue).
By extension a nucleus is kind of a spherical lump of little
billiard balls.
Of course that’s nonsense. A proton is a quantummechanical
object that can be represented by a wavefunction. Actually,
that’s a model as well.
We will study three nuclear models: the liquid drop model, the
Fermi-gas model and the shell model. Later, when we look at
electron-scattering we will see that regarding the nucleus as a
little ball is not always complete nonsense. P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.10/23
 Binding Energy in Liquid Drop Model

Solid matter, i.e. a crystal, is not a good model for nuclear

matter, because it would not explain any of the properties of a
nucleus. Treating the nucleus as a drop of liquid matter with
constant density allows to explain the observed binding
energies (but only those).
The semi-empirical mass formula, first introduced in 1935 by
Weizsäcker (therefore also Weizsäcker-formula), can be
written as




















'






where is the binding energy.






The binding energy can be parameterised using five terms:








 





%

 





P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.11/23
Binding Energy in Liquid Drop Model cont.
The exact values of the coefficients depend on the range of
masses for which they are optimised. One possible set of
parameters is







 









 
 











%









 




even Z and N







odd A



 odd Z and N








Assuming constant density the nuclear radius and the mass

number are connected by the relation




P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.12/23

 Binding Energy - Comparison to Experiment

N
Z
B/A [MeV]

Binding energy per

nucleon of nuclei with
even mass number A.
Solid line corresponds to
semi-empirical mass
formula.
Relatively large
B/A [MeV]

deviations for small A.

For large A somewhat
stronger binding at certain
Z and N. These so-called
Mass number A ’magic numbers’ will be
discussed when we con-
Mass number A sider the shell model.
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.13/23
 Weizsäcker Formula - Individual Terms

Volume term -




Dominating term, proportional to the number of nucleons,


therefore proportional to , the volume.

Each nucleon contributes about 16 MeV. From this we deduce
that the nuclear force has a short range, corresponding
approximately to the distance between two nucleons. This
phenomenon is called saturation.
If each nucleon would interact with all other nucleons, the total




binding energy would be proportional to or




approximately to .

Due to saturation, the central density of nucleons is the same





for (pretty much) all nuclei: 0.17 nucleons/fm or kg/m .



The average inter-nucleon distance is about 1.8 fm.
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.14/23
 Weizsäcker Formula - Individual Terms cont.




Surface term -




Nucleons at the surface are surrounded by fewer nucleons.
Therefore the binding energy is reduced compared to the
nucleons further inside.
This contribution is proportional to the surface area of the


nucleus ( or ).




Coulomb term -


The electrical repulsive force acting between the protons in the

nucleus further reduces the binding energy. This term is
calculated to be



















This is approximately proportional to
.


P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.15/23

 Weizsäcker Formula - Individual Terms cont.





Symmetry term -



For small mass numbers stable nuclei tend to have the same
number of protons and neutrons. Heavier nuclei accumulate
more and more neutrons, which partially compensates for the
increasing Coulomb repulsion by increasing the nuclear force.
The dependence of the nuclear force on the surplus of


electrons is described by the symmetry term .







(Also referred to as asymmetry term.)


Pairing term -




Nuclei are more stable when they have an even number of

protons and/or neutrons. This observation is interpreted as a
coupling of protons and neutrons in pairs.
The pairing energy depends on the mass number, empirically


described by the term .

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.16/23

Contributions to the Binding Energy per Nucleon

B/A [MeV]
Volume energy

Surface energy

Coulomb energy

Symmetry energy
Total binding energy

A
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.17/23
 Mass Parabola
Let us consider nuclei with equal mass number A (isobars).
The Weizsäcker-formula can be transformed into













where the coefficients are








"

"







"






)


 "






as before (-11.2 or 0 or +11.2 MeV) (1)

A plot of nuclear masses as a function of Z for constant A

yields a mass parabola for odd A. For even A, the masses of
the even-even and the odd-odd nuclei are found on two
vertically shifted parabolas (by )





The minimum of the parabolas is found at . The



nucleus with the smallest mass in an isobaric spectrum is
stable with respect to -decay. P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.18/23
 Mass Parabolas for A=101,106

β-unstable
8 stable

M [MeV/c 2]
7 A = 106

β-unstable 6
stable
M [MeV/c 2]

5
5 odd-odd

4 A=101 4

3
3
β– β+
even-even
2 2

1 1

42 43 44 45 46 47 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In

(More details on -decay) on the next couple of slides.)

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.19/23

 

-Decay - Odd Mass Nuclei


Odd mass nuclei are located on a single mass parabola, e.g.
the ones for A=101 on the previous slide.







"
basic reaction

'"
"

"






'




 

  

   


"
condition
 

  

 

"

 



&

 





 


"
example




" 
% "

"
 






is the atomic mass, so that the rest mass of the




created electron is automatically taken into account. The

electron-neutrino mass is so small ( 7 ev/c ) that it can be


neglected.
"

The basic reaction of -decay is only possible inside a

nucleus, because the rest mass of the neutron is larger than
that of the proton.
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.20/23
 -Decay - Even Mass Nuclei
Even mass isobars form two separate parabolas, one for
even-even and one for odd-odd nuclei, which are split by twice
the pairing energy.
There are sometimes more than one even-even nuclei that are




-stable. E.g. in the case of A=106 there are and .







The first is genuinely stable, as the minimum of the parabola.
The isotope could decay via double -decay:


"














However, the probability for such a process is so small that


may be considered stable.






Odd-odd nuclei for are never stable, because they





always have a more strongly bound even-even neighbour. The



light nuclei , , , are stable, because the increase







in asymmetry energy would exceed the decrease in pairing

energy.
P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.21/23
 Electron Capture

"
A competing process to -decay based on different physics is
electron capture:








There is a finite probability of finding an electron from the
atomic shell inside the nucleus; especially for those from the
lowest shell, the K-shell.
Since an electron capture leaves a hole in the K-shell,
electrons will cascade downwards to fill it and in the process
emit characteristic X-rays.
The condition for electron capture is















where is the excitation energy of the atomic shell of the



daughter nucleus.
Electron capture has therefore more energy available to it than

"

-decay ( ).









P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.22/23



-Decay of K

Energy

2 MeV

t1/2 = 1.27.109 a
EC 4–
2+
40
(11 %) 19K

1 MeV β– (89 %)

0+ β+ (0.001 %) 0+
40 40
18Ar 20Ca

P4H 424: Nuclear Physics Lecture 2 – p.23/23