Seconds > 10+15 10-01 10+10 10-02 10+07 10-03 10+05 10-04 10+04 10-05 10+03 10-06 10+02 10-07 10+01 10-15 10+00 < 10-15 Stable EC+β+ β- α p n SF Sándor Nagy INTRODUCTION TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE (for the non-physicist) THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS TEXT CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM: http://nagysandor.eu/lne/ The charts of nuclides that the author used for the decoration of the cover are taken from this site under general permission: http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/ To the best of my knowledge, the internet links in this text are harmless. However any site can be hacked. Use them at your own risk! For Évika COMPLETE LIST OF TEXTS BY THE AUTHOR ON THE DOWNLOAD PAGE: Bevezetés a nukleáris tudományba (the Hungarian version of this text) Introduction to Nuclear Science (this text) Kinetics of Radioactive Deacay and Growth (in English only) Nukleáris mérések és berendezések sztochasztikája (the Hungarian version of the next one) Stochastics and Nuclear Measurements RELATED MATERIAL ON THE INTERNET BY THE AUTHOR: Nukleáris Glosszárium (http://nagysandor.eu/nuklearis/glosszarium.html) Nuclear dictionary (http://nagysandor.eu/nuklearis/kisszotar/) Asimov Téka (http://nagysandor.eu/AsimovTeka/) (simulations) LIBRARY OF NAGY’S E-BOOKS ELTE, KI, Budapest, 2010 © Nagy Sándor Bantu_e_121215 ln e = 1 Sándor Nagy: Introduction to Nuclear Science ln e Contents INTRODUCTORY STUFF ................................................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 5 1. RADIOCHEMISTRY AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY (RC&NC) .......................................................... 6 1.1. RC&NC AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY FIELD OF SCIENCE ............................................................................. 6 1.2. THE BEGINNINGS OF RC&NC AND THE TIMELINE OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE ................................................ 7 1.3. RC&NC—OUTLOOK .............................................................................................................................. 10 2. NUCLIDES AND NUCLEI—ISOTOPES, ISOBARS, ISOTONES, AND ISOMERS .......................... 13 2.1. THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ATOMS AND NUCLEI ..................................................................................... 14 2.2. NUCLIDES—ATOMIC SPECIES DETERMINED BY THEIR NUCLEI ............................................................... 15 2.3. NUCLIDIC NOTATION WITH EXAMPLES ................................................................................................... 17 3. MASS AND ENERGY—BASIC QUANTITIES AND UNITS ................................................................ 20 3.1. THE ELECTRON VOLT—THE ENERGY UNIT IN NUCLEAR SCIENCE ......................................................... 20 3.2. ENERGY AND TEMPERATURE .................................................................................................................. 20 3.3. THE NUCLIDIC MASS AND THE UNIFIED ATOMIC MASS UNIT ................................................................. 21 3.4. QUANTITIES CHARACTERIZING STABILITY AND INSTABILITY ................................................................. 23 3.4.1. The Q-value and the criterion for spontaneity ................................................................................ 23 3.4.2. The Binding Energy of the Nucleus and the B/A Value .................................................................. 25 3.4.3. The Mass Excess ............................................................................................................................. 27 3.4.4. Nucleon Separation Energies ......................................................................................................... 29 4. PARTICLES AND FORCES—THE STANDARD MODEL IN A NUTSHELL ................................... 31 4.1. THE ORIGIN OF NUCLEAR FORCE ............................................................................................................ 31 4.2. CLASSIFICATION OF PARTICLES AND FORCES .......................................................................................... 32 4.3. THE COLOR CHARGE ............................................................................................................................... 36 5. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS ....................................................................... 38 5.1. NUCLEAR RADIUS AND MASS DENSITY .................................................................................................. 38 5.2. NUCLEAR SPIN, ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF NUCLEI ....................................................... 40 5.3. THE ONE-NUCLEON SHELL MODEL OF THE NUCLEUS ............................................................................. 47 6. TOPOLOGY OF THE VALLEY/CONTINENT OF STABILITY ......................................................... 51 6.1. SYSTEMATICS OF STABLE ELEMENTS AND NUCLIDES ............................................................................. 51 6.2. DEPENDENCE OF THE AVERAGE BINDING ENERGY PER NUCLEON ON THE MASS NUMBER ..................... 55 6.3. THE WEIZSÄCKER FORMULA AND THE LIQUID DROP MODEL ................................................................. 57 7. INTRODUCTION TO NUCLEAR REACTIONS .................................................................................... 63 7.1. TYPES OF NUCLEAR REACTIONS ............................................................................................................. 63 7.2. REACTIONS INDUCED BY NEUTRONS AND POSITIVE IONS ....................................................................... 65 7.2.1. Geometrical Cross Section of the Nucleus ..................................................................................... 65 7.2.2. The Nucleus as Felt by a Neutron and a Proton ............................................................................. 66 7.2.3. Reaction Cross Section Systematics ............................................................................................... 66 8. RADIOACTIVITY-RELATED CONCEPTS ............................................................................................ 70 8.1. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MAIN DECAY MODES AND RADIATIONS .................................................... 70 8.2. RADIOACTIVE DECAY VS. CHEMICAL AND NUCLEAR REACTIONS .......................................................... 73 8.3. CHARACTERIZATION OF RADIOACTIVE SAMPLES—DECAY RATE AND COUNT RATE ............................. 75 8.4. HALF-LIFE, MEAN LIFE, DECAY CONSTANT AND THE EXPONENTIAL LAW OF DECAY............................ 76 8.5. DECAY CHAIN, EQUILIBRIUM, BRANCHING, AND DECAY SCHEMES ........................................................ 77 8.6. RADIONUCLIDES ON EARTH .................................................................................................................... 79 9. TOWARDS GREATER STABILITY—RADIOACTIVE DECAY ........................................................ 81 9.1. RADIOACTIVE DECAY AND THE CHART OF NUCLIDES ............................................................................. 81 9.2. INVESTIGATION OF THE SPONTANEITY OF BETA AND ALPHA DECAY ...................................................... 83 9.3. GAMMA DECAY....................................................................................................................................... 90 2 Sándor Nagy: Introduction to Nuclear Science ln e 9.4. FISSION ................................................................................................................................................... 92 9.5. EXOTIC AND RARE DECAY MODES ......................................................................................................... 97 10. KINETICS OF RADIOACTIVE DECAY AND ACTIVATION ......................................................... 99 10.1. RADIOACTIVE DECAY AND GROWTH .................................................................................................. 99 10.2. DECAY FOLLOWING ACTIVATION ..................................................................................................... 104 10.3. PARALLEL DECAY PROCESSES .......................................................................................................... 105 11. AFTEREFFECTS OF RADIOACTIVE DECAY AND NUCLEAR REACTIONS ........................ 106 11.1. RECOIL .............................................................................................................................................. 106 11.2. INNER BREMSSTRAHLUNG, X-RAYS AND AUGER EFFECT ................................................................. 110 12. INTERACTION OF NUCLEAR RADIATIONS WITH MATTER ................................................. 112 12.1. DOSIMETRIC CONCEPTS .................................................................................................................... 113 12.2. INTERACTIONS OF ALPHA RADIATION (HEAVY IONS) ....................................................................... 115 12.3. INTERACTIONS OF BETA RADIATION (LIGHT IONIZING PARTICLES) .................................................. 118 12.4. INTERACTIONS OF GAMMA RADIATION (HIGH-ENERGY PHOTONS) .................................................. 128 12.5. INTERACTIONS OF NEUTRONS ........................................................................................................... 134 13. NUCLEOSYNTHESIS ..........................................................................................................................