Nuclear Physics

27. Nuclear Physics Content 27.1 The nucleus 27.2 Isotopes 27.3 Nuclear processes 27.4 Mass excess and nuclear binding energy 27.5 Radioactive decay Learning Outcomes (k) show an appreciation of the association between energy and mass as represented by E = mc2 and recall and solve problems using this relationship. (l) sketch the variation of binding energy per nucleon with nucleon number. (m) explain the relevance of binding energy per nucleon to nuclear fusion and to nuclear fission. (n) define the terms activity and decay constant and recall and solve problems using A = N. * (o) infer and sketch the exponential nature of radioactive decay and solve problems using the relationship x = xoexp(t) where x could represent activity, number of un-decayed particles or received count rate. (p) define half-life. (q) solve problems using the relation = 0.693/t
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Mass defect
At the nuclear level, since the masses are very small, instead of measuring them in kilogram, we measure the masses of nuclei and nucleons in atomic mass unit One atomic mass unit (1 u) is defined as being equal to one-twelfth of the mass of carbon-12 atom. 1 u is equal to 1.66 x 10-27 kg Using this scale we have: proton mass mp = 1.007276 u neutron mass mn = 1.008665 u electron mass me = 0.000549 u e.g. the mass of a helium-4 nucleus which consists of 2 protons and 2 neutrons should be (2 x 1.007276) + (2 x 1.008665) = 4.031882 u However the actual mass of a helium nucleus is 4.001508 u, less by 0.030374 u This difference between the expected mass and the actual mass of a nucleus is called the mass defect of the nucleus(i.e. mass of the product < the sum of masses of reactants) Hence mass defect of a nucleus is the difference between the total mass2of the separate nucleons and the combined mass of the nucleus

Example
Calculate the mass defect for a carbon-14 nucleus. The measured mass is 14.003240 u. Solution The carbon-14 nucleus contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons, Hence, total mass of separate nucleons is, (6 x 1.007276) + (8 x 1.008665) = 14.112967 u Given, combined mass is = 14.003240 u Therefore the difference is the mass defect = 0.109736 u

Mass-energy equivalence principle

In 1905 Albert Einstein proposed that there is a equivalence between mass and energy, the relationship being E = mc2 where c is the speed of light in metres per second , E is measured in joules and m in kilograms In the example of the helium nucleus earlier, since the mass defect is 0.030374 u, converting u into kg and using the above Einsteins equation, the energy equivalent is 4.54 x 10-12 J This energy in Joules can be converted into eV which is a more convenient energy unit by dividing by 1.6 x 10-19 J giving 28.4 MeV 1 u change in mass is the equivalent of 931 MeV The mass of object when it is at rest is called its rest mass

Binding energy
Within the nucleus there are strong forces which bind the protons and neutrons together, and to separate all these nucleons requires energy i.e. work must be done, referred to as the binding energy of the nucleus(binding means held together)(actually more appropriate to call it unbinding energy) Stable nuclei which have little or no tendency to disintegrate, have large binding energies whereas less stable nuclei have smaller binding energies Similarly, to join together protons and neutrons together to form a nucleus, this binding energy must be released. The binding energy is the equivalent of the mass defect Referring again to the helium example earlier, since the energy equivalent of the mass defect is 28.4 MeV which is the binding energy, 28.4 MeV of energy is required to separate to infinity the 2 protons and 2 neutrons of this nucleus

Example
Calculate the binding energy in MeV of a carbon-14 nucleus with a mass defect of 0.109736 u. Solution Using the equivalence 1 u = 931 MeV, 0.109736 u = 102 MeV Since the binding energy is the energy equivalent of the mass defect, the binding energy = 102 MeV

Stability of nuclei
Within the nucleus of an atom the nucleons experience 2 major forces of attraction and repulsion The attractive force which is called the strong nuclear force acts like a glue to hold the nucleons together and it is a short range force The repulsive forces are the electric forces between the positively charged protons (Coulombic force), which is a long range force The strong force is strong enough to overcome the Coulombic repulsion between protons otherwise the protons would fly apart Stability of a nucleus is determined by the equilibrium between these forces Stable nuclei have much larger attractive forces than repulsive forces Gravitational force of attraction also exist, but are negligible in comparison to the other 2 forces A stable nucleus is one which has a very low probability of decay Stable nuclides generally have approximately the same number of protons to the neutrons in the nucleus i.e. neutron-to-proton ratio is close to 1 A useful measure of stability is the binding energy per nucleon which is defined as the total energy needed to completely separate all the nucleons in a nucleus divided by the number of nucleons in the nucleus The most stable nuclides are those with the highest binding energy per nucleon e.g. iron Typically very stable nuclides have binding energies per nucleon of about 8 MeV
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Neutron vs proton number curve

Binding Energy/nucleon curve

Example
The binding energy of a helium-4 nucleus is 28.4 MeV. Calculate the binding energy per nucleon Solution The helium-4 nucleus has 4 nucleons. The binding energy per nucleon is 28.4/4 = 7.1 MeV

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Fusion and fission

For a system to become stable, it tends to give out energy so that it has less energy content. e.g. chemical reaction : acid + base, mechanical : horizontal cylinder is more stable than standing cylinder Hence, a system also tends to be more stable if it has less mass. This is demonstrated in nuclear reactions. Light nuclei may combine or fuse to form larger nuclei with larger binding energies per nucleon in a process called nuclear fusion For this process to take place conditions of very high temperature and pressure are required, as in stars e.g. the Sun Heavy nuclei when bombarded with neutrons may break into 2 smaller nuclei, again with larger binding energy per nucleon values in a process called nuclear fission. Fission rarely happens spontaneously Whenever nuclear fusion or fission takes place, the nucleon numbers of the nuclei involved change, a higher binding energy is achieved and this is 11 accompanied by an enormous release of energy

Nuclear fission
Being uncharged, neutrons can penetrate the nucleus more easily, but the problem is that they cannot be directed and controlled by electric and magnetic fields In heavy nuclei such as uranium and plutonium there are far more neutrons than protons, giving a neutron/proton ratio of more than 1 e.g. uranium-235 has 92 protons and 143 neutrons giving a neutron/proton ratio of 1.55 This leads to a much lower binding energy per nucleon compared with iron Any further increase in the number of neutrons in such nuclei is likely to cause the nucleus to undergo nuclear fission Nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy nucleus into 2 lighter nuclei of approximately the same mass One element changing into another is called transmutation The energy released per atom by fission(about 200 MeV) is about 50 million times greater than that per atom from a chemical reaction such as burning
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Induced nuclear fission

When nuclear fission is started by the capture of a neutron by say a uranium nucleus, it is known as induced nuclear fission When a uranium-235 nucleus absorbs a neutron, it becomes unstable and splits into 2 lighter more stable nuclei. Although other fission reactions are possible, the most likely reaction is 235U + 1n 141Ba + 92Kr +31n + energy 92 0 56 36 0 If these released neutrons are absorbed by other uranium-235 nuclei, these too may become unstable and undergo fission, thereby releasing even more neutrons causing a chain reaction In such a case, the reaction continues uncontrolled and a great deal of energy is released in a short time If the reaction is controlled so that the number of fissions per unit is constant, the rate of release of energy can be controlled This is precisely what is done in a modern nuclear power station where some of the neutrons released in the reactions are absorbed by control rods

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Nuclear fission reactor

There are several possible fission reactions which may occur in a nuclear reactor represented by the general equation 235U + 1n 236U 2 new nuclides + 2 or 3 neutrons + energy 92 0 92 The nuclides formed in this reaction are called fission fragments Main type of reactor is the Pressurised water-cooled reactor (PWR) pg 372 fig 13.15 Physics by Chris Mee Inside a reactor, uranium-235 is placed in long fuel rods surrounded by pressurised (150 atm) heavy water (deuterium) called a moderator whose role is to slow down the neutrons released during fission Slow moving neutrons are more readily absorbed by uranium-235 The number of neutrons available to trigger further fission reactions is controlled by using control rods made of boron or cadmium Pushing the control rods further into the reactor core causes more neutrons to be absorbed and hence the rate of fission reactions decreases The heat energy that is produced is removed from the reactor by a coolant (water) which is then used to produce high temperature steam in a heat exchanger to drive turbine generators The other main type of commercial nuclear reactor for generation of electricity is the Advanced Gas-Cooled reactor (AGR) where helium gas is the coolant
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Disadvantages of nuclear fission

If the fission material is less than a certain critical mass, too many neutrons escape without hitting the nuclei The fission of uranium-235 produces medium-speed neutrons, while slow neutrons are better at causing fission 1 neutron from each fission must cause further fission to maintain a chain reaction Less than 1% of natural uranium is uranium-235 while over 99% is uranium-238 which absorbs medium-speed neutrons without fiffion taking place Uncontrollable chain reactions

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Nuclear fusion
Most of the energy on Earth comes from the Sun i.e. solar energy through thermonuclear reactions It is produced by nuclear fusion reactions whereby light nuclei such as isotopes of hydrogen join together to produce heavier more stable nuclei and in doing so release energy One of the fusion reactions is 2H1 + 2H1 3He2 +1n0 + energy The binding energy per nucleon for light nuclei such as hydrogen is low, but if 2 light nuclei are made to fuse together, they may form a stable new heavier nucleus which has a higher binding energy per nucleon thus releasing energy Fusion is much more difficult to achieve than fission In order to produce these thermonuclear reactions requires extremely high temperatures(108 or more K) and pressures like that in the Sun because the hydrogen nuclei have to be brought very close together against the coulombic repulsive forces which repel each other We are at present unable to duplicate this reaction in a controlled manner although work is being carried out by Joint European Torus (JET) and International Tomahawk Engineering Research (ITER) an international concern
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Advantages of nuclear fusion

Advantages are: Fuels will be readily obtainable for example deuterium can be extracted from sea-water The main waste product is helium which is not radioactive Fusion reactors have built in safety features, as, if the system fails, fusion stops

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Radioactive decay series

The daughter nuclide of a radioactive decay may itself be unstable and so may emit radiation to give another different nuclide This sequence is called a radioactive decay series (to get picture of decay series) Alpha decay tends to occur in heavy nuclides which are below the stability line of the N Z curve - - Beta decay(actually beta minus decay) tends to occur in heavy nuclides which are above the stability line of the N Z curve During beta minus decay, a neutron is converted into a proton, an electron and an almost undetectable particle with no charge and near-zero mass called an antineutrino + - Beta plus decay is an emission of a positron with the same mass as an electron but a charge of +1 e. It is the antiparticle of an electron

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Neutron vs proton number curve

Detecting/measuring radioactivity
Some of the methods of detecting/measuring radioactivity are based on the ionising properties of the particles or radiation The Geiger Counter a tube with argon gas at low pressure and a thin mica window to allow radiation in. Presence of radiation causes ions pairs in the gas which are accelerated through a potential difference and counted Photographic plates when radioactive emission strikes a photographic film, the film reacts as if it had been exposed to a small amount of visible light which when developed, a fogging or blackening is seen. Used in film badge dosimeter where the radiation passes through different filters consequently the type of radiation as well as the quantity can be assessed The Scintillation counter this is a device that uses the principle of photoelectric emission. When radiation is incident on zinc sulphide it emits tiny pulses of light called a scintillation which causes emission of photoelectrons from the negative electrode of a photomultiplier tube which amplifies the current and is measured or counted All measurements should take into consideration the background radiation due to natural radioactivity and man-made sources which should be 20 subtracted to obtain the correct count or reading

Nature of radioactive decay

The emission of radiation is due to radioactivity is both spontaneous and random Spontaneous means it is not affected by any external factors such as temperature or pressure Random means that it is not possible to predict which nucleus in a sample will decay next However there is a constant probability or chance that a nucleus will decay in any fixed period of time

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Random nature of radioactive decay-simulation

A dice has 6 faces and if 6 dice are thrown simultaneously it is likely that one of them will show a 6 If 12 dice are thrown, it is likely that 2 of them will show a 6 and so on While it is possible to predict the likely number of sixes, it is impossible to say which of the thrown dice will actually show a 6 If a large number of dice say 6000 is thrown, and every time a 6 shows that die is removed, below is a likely scenario
No of throws 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 No of dice remaining 6000 5000 4173 3477 2897 2414 2012 1677 1397 No of dice removed 1000 827 696 580 483 402 335 280

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cont
If a graph of no of dice remaining vs no of throws is plotted, a decay curve will be obtained which is not linear but has a pattern similar to the decay of current in a circuit containing a capacitor and a resistor This experiment can be applied to model radioactive decay where the dice represent the radioactive nuclei, and the 6 on the dice representing the radioactive emission. Once a nucleus has undergone radioactive decay it is no longer available for further decay A graph of the number of un-decayed nuclei in a sample against time has a typical decay curve as above The half-life of a radioactive nuclide is the time taken for the number of un-decayed nuclei to be reduced to half its original number Half-life may also be expressed in terms of the activity of the material

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Example
The half-life of francium-221 is 4.8 minutes. Calculate the fraction of a sample of francium-221 remaining un-decayed after a time of 14.4 minutes. Solution: 14.4 mins is 3 half-lives since 14.4/4.8 = 3 therefore after 1st half-life only remains after 2nd half-life only remains after 3rd half-life only remains

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Activity and decay constant

On investigation, we find that the greater the number of radioactive nuclei in the sample, the greater the rate of decay i.e. the more undecayed nuclei there are, the more frequently disintegrations are likely to occur Mathematically this is described as dN/dt N which gives dN/dt = - N where N is the number of un-decayed atoms in the sample, and dN/dt is the rate at which the number in the nuclei is changing, so dN/dt represents the rate of decay and is called the activity A of the source. A is measured in becquerels (1 Bq = 1 s-1) Combining A = - dN/dt and dN/dt = - N we have A = N where is a constant of proportionality known as the decay constant, of unit s-1, yr-1 etc Decay constant , is defined as the probability per unit time that a nucleus will undergo decay This is an important equation because it relates a quantity dN/dt which we 25 can measure to a quantity which we cannot i.e. number of un-decayed nuclei Also we will see that is directly related to the half-life of the nuclei

Example
Calculate the number of phosphorus-32 nuclei in a sample which has an activity of 5.0 x 106 Bq. (given decay constant of phosphorus-32 is 5.6 x 10-7 s-1) Solution from dN/dt = - N, N = (-dN/dt)/ = (-5.0 x 106)/(5.6 x 10-7) = -8.9 x 1012 The minus sign indicates a decay

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Mathematical descriptions of radioactive decay

To solve the equation dN/dt = - N requires higher level mathematics; however it is important to know the solution in order to find the variation with time of the number of nuclei remaining in the sample The solution is N = Noe-t or N = Noexp(-t) where No is the initial number of un-decayed nuclei in the sample, and N is the number of un-decayed nuclei at time t This equation represents an exponential decay Since the activity A is proportional to N, the curve of A against t is of the same shape and hence we can write A = Aoe-t or A = Aoexp(-t)

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Example
A sample of phosphorus-32 contains 8.6 x 1012 nuclei at time t = 0. The decay constant of phosphorus-32 is 4.8 x 10-2 day-1. Calculate the number of undecayed phosphorus-32 nuclei in the sample after 10 days. Solution using N = Noe-t , we have N = 8.6 x 1012 x e-0.048x10 = 5.3 x 1012 (always ensure that and t are consistent in their units i.e. days mathced to days, seconds matched to seconds etc)

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Decay constant and half-life

Using N = Noe-t we can derive an equation which relates the half-life to the decay constant For any radioactive nuclide, the number of un-decayed nuclei after 1 halflife is by the definition, equal to No/2 where No is the original un-decayed nuclei. Using N = Noe-t we have at time t = t N = Noe-t and dividing each side by No N/No = 1/2 = e-t or 2 = et and taking natural logs of both sides lne 2 = t so that t = ln 2/ t = 0.693/

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Example
Calculate the half-life of radium-226 which has a decay constant of 1.42 x 10-11 s-1. Solution Using t = 0.693/ = 4.88 x 1010 s

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Particle Zoo
By the mid 1930s, the understanding of the fundamental structure of matter seemed almost complete Ordinary matter is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons The 30s and 40s saw the discovery of a number of particles not found in normal matter through high energy collisions in particle accelerators, followed by a whole host of unstable particles after 1960, most of which are short-lived These matter particles are classified into 2 main groups: hadrons and leptons There are now 12 known leptons, but more than 100 hadrons! It is clear that these do NOT represent the fundamental structure of matter!

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Matter particles
Matter particles

Hadrons
(feel the strong nuclear force)

Leptons
(do not feel the strong nuclear force) (have no size, low or no mass)

Baryons
(includes protons neutrons & heavier particles)

Mesons
(particles lighter than protons)

Proton Neutron Lambda Sigma Omega etc

- Pion - Kaon - etc

- Electron - Electron-neutrino - Muon - Tau

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Quantum numbers & quarks

Particles have various quantum numbers assigned to them to represent other quantities seen during interactions Examples: Charge, Lepton number, Baryon number, Strangeness, Charm, Spin, Topness, Bottomness The properties and quantum numbers of hadrons can be accounted for by assuming that each particle is a combination of others called quarks which have fractional charge Example: Baryons are each made up of 3 quarks, Mesons are made up of a quark & antiquark

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Force carriers
Nucleons need not be in contact to exert forces on each other To explain how the strong force is carried from one nucleon to another, the idea of exchange particles is used Particles that carry the fundamental forces are known as gauge bosons Quarks are bound together by gluons

Force strong electromagnetic weak gravitational

Gauge bosons gluon photon W plus, W minus graviton

Existence of a graviton is speculation only Grand unified theories(GUTs) seeks to link all the above forces
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