“IN THE NAME OF

ALLAH WHO IS
MOST MIGHTY AND
MERCIFUL”
COMPOUND NUCLEUS
AND
THEORY OF
COMPOUND
NUCLEUS
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NAINA GUL
5518
BS PHYSICS VIII
SUBJECT:
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC:
COMPOUND NUCLEUS AND THEORY
OF COMPOUND NUCLEUS
SUBMITTED TO:
MAM SABA ZULFIQAR
DATE: 13 –APRIL-2020

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TABLE:

 NUCLEAR REACTION
 COMPOUND NUCLEUS
 COMPOUND NUCLEUS MODEL
 BOHR THEORY OF COMPOUND NUCLEUS
 RESONANCES
 SUMMARY

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NUCLEAR REACTIONS:

“A Nuclear reaction is considered to be the process in which two nuclear

particles (two nuclei or a nucleus and a nucleon) interact to produce two or
more nuclear particles or gamma rays.”

CLASSIFICATION:

In order to understand the nature of nuclear reactions, the classification

according to the time scale of these reactions has to be introduced.

INTERACTION TIME

“INTERACTION TIME IS CRITICAL FOR DEFINING THE REACTION MECHANISM”

TYPES:

There are two types for nuclear reaction:

 DIRECT NUCLEAR REACTION

 COMPOUND NUCLEUS REACTION
DIRECT NUCLEAR REACTION
“A PROJECTILE AND A TARGET NUCLEUS ARE WITHIN THE RANGE OF
NUCLEAR FORCES FOR VERY SHORT TIME ALLOWING FOR AN
INTERACTION OF A SINGLE NUCLEON ONLY”
COMPOUND NUCLEUS REACTION
“A PROJECTILE AND A TARGET NUCLEUS ARE WITHIN THE RANGE OF
NUCLEAR FORCES FOR A LARGE NUMBER OF INTERACTION BETWEEN
NUCLEONS”

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Compound nucleus

DEFINITION

The COMPOUND NUCLEUS is a relatively long lived reaction

intermediate that is the results of the complicated set of two body interaction in
which the energy of the projectile is distributed among all the nucleons of the
composite system

OR

An unstable nucleus formed by the coalescence of an atomic nucleus with a

captured particle

COMPOUND NUCLEUS MODEL

HISTORY

Compound nucleus model, description of atomic nuclei proposed in 1936 by

the Danish physicist NEILS BOHR to explain nuclear reactions as a two stage
process comprising the formation of a relatively long –lived intermediate
nucleus and its subsequent decay.

FIRST;

FORMATION

A bombarding particle loses all its energy to the target nucleus and become
an integral part of a new ,highly excited, unstable nucleus called a COMPOUND
NUCLEUS

FORMATION STAGES:

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The formation stages take a period of time approximately equal to the time
interval of bombarding particle to travel across the diameter of the target
nucleus (About 10^-21 second) .

SECOND:

DISINTEGRATION

After a relatively long period of time (TYPICALLY FROM 10^-19 TO 10^-15

SECOND) and independent of the properties of the reactants , the COMPOUND
NUCLEUS disintegrates, usually into an ejected small particle and a product
nucleus.

EXAMPLE:

The compound nucleus SILICON-28 I formed by bombarding

ALUMINIUM-27 with protons (HYDROGEN-1 NUCLEI).

The compound nucleus is excited ,or in a high energy state ,and may decay into
MAGNESIUM-24 And HELIUM-4 (AN ALPHA PARTICLE), SILICON-27 and a
proton ,a more stable form of SULICON -28 and a GAMMA RAY photon ,or
SODIUM -24 plus three protons and one neutron.

NOTE:

The compound –nucleus model is very successful in explaining nuclear

reactions induced by a relatively low-energy bombarding particle (that is
,projectiles with energies below about 50 million electron volts).

BOHR THEORY OF COMPOUND NUCLEUS

BOHR proposed the COMPOUND NUCLEUS THEORY in which a nuclear fission

take place in TWO STAGES:

 FORMATION OF THE COMPOUND

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NUCLEUS

 DECAY OF THE COMPOUND NUCLEUS

FORMATION OF THE COMPOUND NUCLEUS

When a high energy projectile such as neutron collides with a nucleus, a
COMPOUND NUCLEUS is formed wherein, the neutron is absorbed by the initial
nucleus.

DECAY OF THE COMPOUND NUCLEUS

As the total energy of the projectile is transferred to the compound system, the
COMPOUND NUCLEUS is thus is an excited state .The average increase in energy
per nucleon is not enough to free it from the NUCLEUS but, there is a large
probability for the COMPOUND NUCLEUS to split into fragments each
containing multiple nucleons. When this happens,, the NUCLEAR FISSION is
complete.

NOTE:

It may also be remarked that probability of decay into a specific set of products
is assumed to be independent of formation of the COMPOUND NUCLEUS. This is
known as the BOHR INDEPENDENT HYPOTHESIS.

EXPLANATION:

This model assumes that incident particle and the target nucleus become
indistinguishable after the collision and together constitute the particular
excited state of nucleus_the COMPOUND NUCLEUS.

To become indistinguishable the projectile had to suffer collision with

constituent nucleons of the target nucleus until it has loss its incident energy.
Infact many so these collisions leads to a COMPLETE THERMAL EQUILLIBRIUM
inside the COMPOUND NUCLEUS.

NOTE:

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THE COMPOUND NUCLEUS is excited by both the kinetic energy of projectile and
by the binding energy nucleon.

IMPORTANT FEATURE:

VERY important feature and direct consequence of the thermal equilibrium

inside a COMPOUND NUCLEUS is the fact the MODE OF DECAY of compound
nucleus dos not depend on the way of the COMPOUND NUCLEUS is formed.

DECAY MECHANISM:

The decay mechanism that dominates the decay of C* is determined by the

excitation energy in C* and by the law of probability.

STAGES:

THESE reaction can be considered as a two stage processes

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RESONANCES:

For the COMPOUND NUCLEUS peaks in the cross section are typical. Each peak is
manifesting a particular compound states of nucleus.

“THESE PEAKS AND THE ASSOCIATED COMPOUND NUCLEI ARE USUALLY CALLED

RESONANCES”

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EXPLANATION:

RESONANCES (particular quantum states) are mostly created in neutron nuclear

reaction, but it is by no means restricted to neutron nuclear reactions.

FORMATION:

THE formation of resonance is caused by the QUANTUM NATURE OF NUCLEAR

FORCES. Each nuclear reaction is a transition between different quantum
discrete states or energy levels. The discrete nature of energy transition plays a
key role. If the energy of the projectile (the sum of the q value and the kinetic
energy of projectile) and the energy of target nucleus is equal to the
COMPOUND NUCLEUS at one of the excited states, a resonance can be created
and peak occurs in the cross section.

LIGHT NUCLEUS

For light nucleus, the allowable state density in this energy is much lower and
the ‘distance’ between state is higher.

HEAVY NUCLEUS

For heavy nuclei such as U-238, we can observe large resonance region in the
neutron absorption cross section.

IMPORTANT POINT:

IT is obvious that compound states (resonances) are observed at low excitation

energies .This is due to the fact that the energy gap between the states is large.

AT HIGH EXCITATION ENERGY:

AT high excitation energy, the gap between two compound states is very small
and the width of the resonances may reach the order of the distances between
resonances.

AT HIGH ENERGIES:

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At high energies, no resonances can be observed and the cross section in this
energy region is continuous and smooth.

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THE POSITION OF THE ENERGY LEVEL DURING THE FORMATION OF A

COMPOUND NUCLEUS. GROUND STATES AND ENERGY STATES.

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REGION OF RESONANCES OF URANIUM-238 NUCLEI:

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SUMMARY:

 The compound nucleus is a relatively long-lived intermediate state

of particle-target composite system.

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 The compound nucleus reactions involve many nucleon–nucleon

interaction.
 The large number of collisions between the nucleons leads to a
thermal equilibrium inside the nucleus.
 The time scale of compound nucleus reaction is of the order of 10^-
18s to 10^-16s.
 The compound nucleus reaction is usually created if the projectile
has low energy.
 Incident particles interact in the volume of a target nucleus.
 Products of the compound nucleus reactions are distributed near
isotropically in angle.
 The mode of decay of compound nucleus do not depend on the way
of compound nucleus is formed.
 Resonances in the cross section are typical for the compound
nucleus reaction.

THANK YOU

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