CHAPTER IV

NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIOACTIVITY

Basic Competency:
Students are able to understand nuclear physics, radioactivity and its application

Indicator:
1. Able to explain structure and properties of the nucleus
2. Able to explain alpha, beta, gamma decay
3. Able to explain half-life and rate of decay
4. Able to explain nuclear reaction
5. Able to derive nuclear Fission
6. Able to analyze nuclear Fusion

4.1 Structure and Properties of the Nucleus

An important question to physicist in the early nineteen century was
whether the nucleus had a structure, and what structure might be. In 1930 a
model of nucleus had been developed. According to the model, a nucleus is
considered as an aggravated of two types of particles: protons and neutrons. A
proton is the number of the simplest atom, hydrogen. It has a positive charge of
+e =+1.60x10-19 C and a mass mp=1.6726x10-27 kg. The neutron, whose
existence was ascertained only in 1932 by Chadwick, is electrically neutral
(q=0). Its mass, which is almost identical to that of the proton, is m n=1.6749x10-
27
kg. These two constituent of a nucleus, neutron and proton, are referred to
the collectively as nucleus.
The number of protons in a nucleus is called the atomic number and is
designed by the symbol Z. The total number of nucleons, neutron plus protons,
is designed by the symbol A and is called the atomic mass number. The
neutron number N is N=A-N. To specify a given nuclide, we need only A and Z.
A special symbol is commonly used which takes the form
Where, X is the chemical symbol for the element. A is the atomic mass number,
and Z is the atomic number.

Figure 4.1 Number of neutron and proton for stable nuclides

For a particular type of atom (say carbon), nuclei are found to contain
different number of neutrons, although they all have the same number of
protons. Nuclei that contain the same number of protons but different numbers
of neutrons are call isotopes. Thus , , , , , and are all
isotope of carbon. The approximate size of nuclei was determined originally by
Rutherford from the scattering of charge particles. It is found that nuclei have a
roughly spherical shape, with a radius that increase with A according to the
approximate formula
4.1

Since the volume of a sphere is , so that the volume is proportional to

the number of nucleons,

Nuclear masses are specified in unified atomic mass units (u). A
neuron has a measured mass of 1.008665 u, a proton 1.007276 u, and a
neutral hydrogen atom, 1.007825 u. Beside that, masses are often
specified using the electron-volt energy unit. This can be done because mass
and energy are related, and the precise relationship is given by Einstein’s
equation .
The result is
4.2

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 Just as an electron has an intrinsic spin and angular momentum, so too
do nuclei and their constituents, the proton and neutron. Both the proton and
the neutron are spin-1/2 particles. A nucleus, made up of protons and neutrons,
has a nuclear spin, I, that can be either integer or half integer, depending on
whether it is made up of an even or an odd number of nucleons. The nuclear
angular momentum of a nucleus is given by . Nuclear magnetic
moments are measured in terms of the nuclear magneton.

4.3

Then,

4.2 Binding Energy and Nucleus Forces

The total of a nucleus is always less than the sum of the masses of its
constituent protons and neutrons. As we know that the mass of a neutral
is 4.002603. The mass of two neutrons and two protons is

-------------------------

Thus, the mass of is measured to be 4.032980 u – 4.002603 u =0.030377

u less than the masses of its constituents. How can this be? Where has this
mass gone? The loss mass has gone into energy of another kind (binding
energy). The mass difference in the case of , is (0.030377 u)(931.5
MeV/u)=28.30 MeV. This difference is referred to as the total binding energy
of the nucleus. The binding energy represents the amount of energy that must
be put into a nucleus in order to break it apart into its constituent protons and
neutrons. The average binding energy per nucleon is defined as the total
binding energy of a nucleus divided by A, the total number of nucleon. For
it is 28.3 MeV/4=7.1 MeV.

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 Nuclei can hold together in nucleus is not only merely explained from the
point of view of energy binding, but also from the point of view of the forces that
hold them together. It is impossible a collection of protons and neutrons to come
together spontaneously, since protons are all positively charged and thus exert
repulsive forces on each other. Indeed, the question arises as to how a nucleus
stays together at all in view of the fact that electrostatic repulsion between
protons would tend to break a part. Since stable nuclei do stay together, it is
clear that another force must be acting, and it is stronger than the electric force.
It is called the strong nuclear force. The strong nuclear force is an attractive
force that act between all nucleons-protons and neutron alike. The strong
nuclear force is a short range force. Compare this to electric and gravitational
forces, which can act over great distances and are therefore called long-range
forces.
What we mean by a stable nucleus is one that stays together indefinitely.
What then is unstable nucleus? It is one that comes apart, and this result in
radioactive decay. The subject of radioactivity can not be separated with the
weak nuclear force.

4.3 Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Decay

In related to radioactivity, Becquerel made an important discovery, in his
studies of phosphorescence, he found that a certain mineral (which happened
to contain uranium) would darken a photographic plate was wrapped to exclude
light. It was clear that the mineral emitted some new kind of radiation which,
unlike X rays, occurred without any external stimulus. This new phenomena
came to be called radioactivity. Then deeply studied was done by Marie Curie
and her husband, isolated polonium and radium, other radioactive elements
were soon discovered as well. The source of radioactivity must be deep within
the atom that it must emanate from the nucleus. The radioactivity is the result of
the disintegration or decay, with the emission of some type of radiation.
Rutherford began studying the nature of the rays emitted in radioactivity. He
concluded that there are three types of radiation named alpha (), beta (), and
gamma (), as shown in figure 4.1

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 When a nucleus emits an  particle ( ), alpha decay, it is clear that
the remaining nucleus will be different from the original, for it has lost two
protons and two neutrons. When alpha decay occurs, a new element is formed,
for example:

The daughter nucleus ( ) is different from the parent nucleus (

). This changing of one element into another is called transmutation of

the element.

Figure 4.2 Alpha, beta, and gamma decay

(a) Alpha Decay

Alpha decay occurs because the strong nuclear force is unable to hold
very large together. Because the nuclear force is a short-range force, it acts
only between neighboring nucleons. But the electric force can act clear across
the nucleus. For very large nuclei, the large Z means the repulsive becomes
very large. And, it acts between all protons. The instability nuclei can be stated
in energy (or mass). The mass of the parent nucleus is greater than the mass of
the daughter nucleus plus the mass of the particle. The mass difference as
kinetic energy carried away mainly by the particle. Te total energy is called the
disintegration energy (Q) or the Q-value defined:

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 4.4

Where , , are the masses of the parent nucleus, daughter nucleus,

and  particle. If the parents have less that the daughter plus the particle the
decay could not occur, for the conservation of energy law would be violated.

Problem 4.1
Calculate the disintegration energy when a nucleus (mass=232.03714 u)

decays to (228.02873 u) with the emission of an  particle.

Solution
Since the mass of a nucleus 4.002603 u, the total mass in the final state is

228.02873 u + 4.002603 u=232.03133 u. The mass lost when the nucleus

decays is 232.03714-232.03133 u. This mass appears as kinetic energy. Since
1 u=931.5 MeV, the Ek released (Q) is (0.00581 u)(931.5 MeV/u) 5.4 MeV

We can understand decay using a model of a nucleus inside of which

there is an alpha particle bouncing around. The potential energy “ seen” by the
 particle would have a shape something like that shown in figure 4.2.

Figure 4.3 Model of Alpha decay

The approximately square well between r=0 and r=R represent the short-range
attractive nuclear force. Beyond the nuclear radius, R o, the Coulomb repulsion
dominates. Since the potential energy just beyond r=R o is greater than the

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energy of the  particle, so the  particle could not escape the nucleus
according to classical physics. But quantum mechanic allows that there is a
certain probability that the  particle can tunnel through the Coulomb barrier,
from point A and point B.

(b) Beta decay

Transmutation of elements also occurs when a nucleus decays by 
decay-that is, with the emission of an electron or  particle. The nucleus ,
for example, emits an electron when it decays:

No nucleons are lost when an electron is emitted, and the total number of
nucleons, A, is the same in the daughter has in the parent. But because an
electron has been emitted, the charge of the daughter is different from the
parent. The electron decay is not an orbital electron. Instead, the electron is
created within the nucleus itself. Indeed, free neutrons actually do decay in this
fashion:

Problem 4.2
How much energy is released when decays to by  emission.

Solution
Assume the parent nucleus has six orbiting electrons so it is neutral and its
mass is 14.003242 u. The daughter in this decay is not neutral, however,
since it has the same six electrons circling it, but the nucleus has a charge of
+7e. However, the mass of this daughter with its six electrons, plus the mass of
the emitted electron is jus the mass of a neutral nitrogen atom. That is, the
mass in final state is
(mass of nucleus + 6 electrons)+ (mass of 1 electron)

= mass of neutral (includes 7 electrons)

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 =14.003074 u
Hence the mass before decay is 14.003242 and after decay is 14.003074 u, so
the mass difference is 0.000168 u, which corresponds to 0.156 MeV or 156
keV.
Although the energy conserves in  decay, however, careful experiment
also indicated that, linier momentum and angular momentum too did not seen to
be conserved. The trouble can be resolve after Wolfgang Pauli (1930) proposed
an alternative solution: perhaps a new particle that was very difficult to detect
was emitted during  decay in addition to the electron. The particle
hypothesized could be carrying off the energy, momentum, and angular
momentum required maintaining the conservation laws. This new particle was
named the Neutrino, meaning “ little neutral one” by the great Italian physicist
Enrico Fermi (1934). The correct way of writing the decay of is then

The bar (--) over the neutrino symbol is to indicate that it is an “antineutrino”.

(c) Gamma Decay

Gamma rays are photons having very high energy. Like an atom,
nucleus can be in an excited state because of a violent collision with another
particle, more commonly, the nucleus remaining after a previous radioactive
decay. The nucleus in an excited state is said to be in a metastable state, and is
called an isomer. When, it jumps down to a lower energy state, or to the ground
state, it emits a photon, for example:

An exited nucleus can sometimes return to the ground state by another

process, known as internal conversion. In this process, the excited nucleus
interacts with one of the orbital electrons and ejects this electron from the atom
with the same Ek that an emitted  ray would have had. There is difference

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between a  ray and X ray. X ray if the photon is produced by an electron-atom
interaction and  ray if the photon is produced in a nuclear process.

4.4 Half-life and Rate of Decay

A macroscopic sample of any radioactive isotope consists of a vast
number of radioactive nuclei. These nuclei do not all decay at one time. Rather,
they decay one by one over period of time. This is a random process; we can’t
predict exactly when a given nucleus will decay. But we can determine, on a
probability basis, approximately how many nuclei in a sample will decay over a
given period. The number of decays that occur in a very short time interval
is found to be proportional to t and to the total number N of radioactive
present:
4.5

 is a constant of proportionality called the decay constant, which is different for

different isotopes.
If we take the limit , N will be small compared to N, and we can
write the equation 4.5 in infinitesimal form as
4.6

Then

And then integrating from t=0 to t=t:

Where No is the number of parent nuclei present at t=0, and N is the number
remaining at time t. The integration give

Or
4.7

Equation 4.7 is called the radioactive decay law. The number of radioactive
nuclei in a given sample decreases exponentially in time, as shown in figure 4.3

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 Figure 4.4 The number of decays per second decreases exponentially

The rate of decay, or number of decays per second, in a pure sample is

, which is called the activity of a given sample.

At t=0, the activity is

Hence 4.8

The rate of decay of any isotope is often specified by giving its half-time rather
than the decay constant . The half-life of an isotope is defined as the time it
takes for half the original amount of isotope in a given sample to decay. The
precise relation is:

4.9

Problem 4.3
The isotope has a half-life of 5730 year. If at some time a sample contains
1.0x1022 carbon 14 nuclei, what is the activity of the sample
Solution
First we calculate the decay constant  and obtain

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Since there are (60)(60)(3651/4)=3.156 x 10 7s in a year. The activity or rate of
decay is:

4.4 Nuclear Reaction

The transformation of one element into another, called transmutation,
also occur by means of nuclear reactions. A nuclear reaction is said to occur
when a given nucleus is struck by another nucleus, or by a simpler particle such
as a  ray or neutron, so that an interaction takes place. Ernest Rutherford was
the first to report seeing a nuclear reaction that some of the  particles passing
through nitrogen gas were absorbed and protons emitted.

Where is an  particle and is a proton. Nuclear reaction are

sometimes written in a shortened form, . In any nuclear reaction,

both electric charge and nucleon number are conserved.

Problem 4.4
A neutron is observed to strike an nucleus and a deuteron is given off.
Deuteron is the isotope of hydrogen containing one proton and one neutron (
)

Solution
We have the reaction . The total number of nucleons initially
16+1=17, and the total charge is 8+0=8, the same totals to apply to the right
side of the reaction. Hence the product nucleus must have Z=7 and A=15. From
the periodic table, we find that it is nitrogen The reaction can be written

, where d represent deuterium, .

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 Energy and momentum is conserved in nuclear reaction, and this can be
used to determine whether a given reaction can occur or not. If the total mass of
products is less than the total mass of the initial particles, then energy will
released by the reaction-it will appear as kinetic energy of the outgoing particle.
But if the total mass of the products is greater than the total mass of the initial
reactants, the reaction requires energy. Consider a nuclear reaction of the
general form

Where a is a projectile particle or small nucleus that strikes nucleus X,

producing nucleus Y and particle b typically p, n, . We define the reaction
energy or Q value, in terms of the masses involved, as
4.10

Since energy is conserved, Q is equals to the change in kinetic energy

4.11

For Q>0, the reaction is said to be exothermic or exoergic: energy is released in

the reaction, so the total Ek is greater after the reaction than before. If Q<0, the
reaction is said to be endothermic or endoergic: energy is required to make the
reaction happen.

Problem 4.5
The nuclear reaction is observed to occur even when very
slowly moving neutrons (Mn=1.0087 u) strike a boron atom at rest. For a
particular reaction in which Ekn0, the helium (MHe=4.0026 u) is observed to
have a speed of 9.30x106 m/s. Determine (a) the Ek of the Lithium (M Li=7.0160
u), and (b) the Q value of the reaction.

Solution
(a) Since the neutron and boron are both essentially at rest, the total
momentum before the reaction is zero, and afterward is also zero. Therefore,

Hence

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Where we have used 1u=1.66x10-27 kg and 1 MeV=1.60x10-13J
(b) We set Eka=Ekx=0; so , where

Hence

4.5 Nuclear Fission

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (1938) made an amazing discovery,
because of their founding that uranium bombarded by neutrons sometimes
produced smaller nuclei which were roughly half the size of the original uranium
nucleus. The uranium nucleus, after absorbing a neutron, had actually split into
two roughly equal pieces. This phenomenon was named nuclear fission
because of its resemble to cell division. A typical fission reaction is

A tremendous amount of energy is released in a fission reaction because the

mass of is considerably greater than that of the fission fragments. The
neutrons released in fission could be used to create a chain reaction, as
shown in figure 4.4

Figure 4.5 Chain reaction

4.6 Nuclear Fusion
The mass of every stable nucleus is less than the sum of the masses of
its constituent protons and neutrons. Thus, if two protons and two neutrons

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were to come together to form a helium nucleus there would be a loss of mass.
This mass loss is manifested in the release of a large amount of energy. The
process of building up nuclei by bringing together individual protons and
neutrons, or building larger nuclei by combining small nuclei, is called nuclear
fusion. Nuclear fusion is continually taking place within the stars, including our
sun, producing the prodigious amounts of radiant energy they emit. The energy
output of our sun is believed to be due principally to the following sequence of
fusion reactions:
(0.42 MeV)

(5.49 MeV)

(12.86 MeV)
where, the Q values of each reaction are given in parentheses. The net effect of
this sequence, which is called the proton-proton cycle, is for four protons to
combine to form one nucleus plus two positron, two neutrinos, and two
gamma rays:
4.12

Problem 4.6
One of the simplest fusion reaction involves the production of deuterium, ,

from a neutron and a proton: . How much energy is released in

this reaction?

Solution
The initial rest mass is 1.007825 u + 1.008665 u = 2.016490 u and after the
reaction the mass is that of the , namely 2.014102 u. The energy released is

thus (0.002388 u)(931.5 MeV/u)=2.22 MeV, and is carried off by the

nucleus and the  ray.

Miscellaneous problem
1. What do different isotopes of a given element have in common? How are
they different?

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2. What are the similarities and the differences between the strong nuclear
force and the electric force?
3. Use the uncertainty principle to argue why electrons are unlikely to be found
in the nucleus!
4. in an exited state emits a 1.33 MeV  ray as it jumps to the ground
state. What is the mass of the excited cobalt atom?
5. The activity of a sample of (T1/2=7.5x106s) is 5.2 x 106 decays per
second. What is the mass of sample present?
6. A proton strikes a nucleus, and an  particle is emitted. What is the
residual nucleus? Write down the reaction equation!
7. (a) Can the reaction occur if the incident proton has Ek=1500
keV?(b) If so, what is the total kinetic energy is released?
8. Calculate the energy released in the fission reaction

Assume the initial Ek of neutron is very small.

9. What is the average kinetic energy of protons at the centre of a star where
the temperature is 107K?
10. Show that the energy released in the fusion reaction
is 17.59 MeV!

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