Discovery of Neutron
Accurate measurement of atomic masses is carried out with a mass
spectrometer.
The measurement of atomic masses reveals the existence of different types of
atoms of the same element, which exhibit the same chemical properties, but
differ in mass.
Therefore, the nuclei of deuterium and tritium must contain, in addition to a
proton, some neutral matter.
This fact indicates that the nuclei of atoms contain, in addition to protons,
neutral matter in multiples of a basic unit.
This hypothesis was verified in 1932 by James Chadwick who observed
emission of neutral radiation when beryllium nuclei were bombarded with
alpha-particles.
It was found that this neutral radiation could knock out protons from light
nuclei such as those of helium, carbon and nitrogen.
The only neutral radiation known at that time was photons (electromagnetic
radiation).
Application of the principles of conservation of energy and momentum
showed that this neutral radiation must have particles with mass.
The clue to this puzzle, which Chadwick satisfactorily solved, was to
assume that the neutral radiation consists of a new type of neutral
particles called neutrons.
From conservation of energy and momentum, he was able to determine the
mass of new particle ‘as very nearly the same as mass of proton’.
A free neutron, unlike a free proton, is unstable.
It decays into a proton, an electron and a antineutrino (another elementary
particle), and has half life of about 10.2 minutes. It is, however, stable inside
the nucleus.
Calculate the average atomic mass of chlorine.
The nuclear force occurs by the exchange of virtual
light mesons, such as the virtual pions (π-meson), as
well as two types of virtual mesons with spin (vector
mesons), the rho mesons and the omega mesons.
The vector mesons account for the spin-dependence of
the nuclear force in this "virtual meson" picture.
FEATURES OF THE NUCLEAR BINDING FORCE
(iv) The nuclear force between two nucleons falls rapidly to zero as their
distance is more than a few femtometres. This leads to saturation of forces in a
medium or a large-sized nucleus, which is the reason for the constancy of the
binding energy per nucleon.
A rough plot of the potential energy between
two nucleons as a function of distance is shown
in the Figure.
The potential energy is a minimum at a distance ro
of about 0.8 fm.
This means that the force is attractive for distances
larger than 0.8 fm and repulsive if they are separated by distances
less than 0.8 fm.
Nuclear fusion
Two protons combine to form a deuteron and a positron with a release of 0.42
MeV energy.
Two deuterons combine to form the light isotope of helium.
Two deuterons combine to form a triton and a proton.
In all these reactions, we find that two positively charged particles combine to
form a larger nucleus.
It must be realised that nuclear fusion is hindered by the Coulomb
repulsion that acts to prevent the two positively charged particles from getting
close enough to be within the range of their attractive nuclear forces and thus
‘fusing’.
The height of this Coulomb barrier depends on the charges and the radii of the
two interacting nuclei.
For example, it can be easily shown that for two protons, the barrier height is ~
400 keV.
The temperature at which protons in a proton gas would have enough
energy to overcome the coulomb’s barrier is given by (3/2)k T = K 400 keV and
is about 3 × 109 K.
The barrier height for more highly charged nuclei is higher.
The fusion reaction in the sun is a multi-step process in which hydrogen is
burned into helium, hydrogen being the ‘fuel’ and helium the ‘ashes’.
The proton-proton (p, p) cycle by which this occurs is represented by the
following sets of reactions:
For the fourth reaction to occur, the first three reactions must occur twice, in
which case two light helium nuclei unite to form ordinary helium or nucleus.
Thus, four hydrogen atoms combine to form a helium atom with a release of
26.7 MeV of energy.
The burning of hydrogen in the sun’s core is alchemy on a grand scale in the
sense that one element is turned into another.
It has beengoing on for about 5 × 109 years, and calculations show that there is
enough hydrogen to keep the sun going for about the same time into the future.
In about 5 billion years, however, the sun’s core, which by that time will be
largely helium, will begin to cool and the sun will start to collapse under its
own gravity.
This will raise the core temperature and cause the outer envelope to expand,
turning the sun into what is called a red giant.
If the core temperature increases to 108 K again, energy can be produced
through fusion once more – this time by burning helium to make carbon.
As a star evolves further and becomes still hotter, other elements can be
formed by other fusion reactions.
However, elements more massive than those near the peak of the binding
energy curve cannot be produced by further fusion.
The energy generation in stars takes place via thermonuclear fusion.
RADIOACTIVITY
The phenomenon of spontaneous emission of highly penetrating radiations
such as α, β and γ rays by an element (Z > 82) is called radioactivity and the
substances which emit these radiations are called radioactive elements.
(i) α-decay in which a helium nucleus is emitted.
(ii) β-decay in which electrons or positrons are emitted.
(iii) γ-decay in which high energy (hundreds of keV or more) photons are
emitted.
