Nuclear Physics Lecture One

Introduction to Nuclear Physics

Nuclear Physics

Nuclear physics is the branch of physics that studies the nucleus of the atom, its components
(protons and neutrons), and their interactions. It also explores the energy released during nuclear
reactions and the applications of this energy in various fields.

Historical Background
- 1896: Becquerel discovered radioactivity.
- 1911: Rutherford proposed the nuclear model of the atom.
- 1932: Chadwick discovered the neutron.
- 1938: Hahn and Strassmann discovered nuclear fission.
- 1942: Fermi achieved the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

Structure of the Nucleus

Nuclei are made up of protons and neutrons bound together by the strong force. Both protons and
neutrons are referred to as nucleons. The number of protons is called the atomic number and
determines the chemical element. Standard nuclear notation shows the chemical symbol, the mass
number and the atomic number.

The mass of an element that is numerically equal to the atomic mass A in grams is called a mole
and will contain Avogadro's number NA of nuclei. If the density ρ of the material is known, then
the number of nuclei per unit volume n can be calculated from n =ρNA/A. This is useful in
calculating the cross section for nuclear scattering.

The properties of the three subatomic particles are listed in Table 1.

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Nuclear Physics Lecture One

Table 1. Properties of subatomic particles

Nuclide Classifications
1. Isotopes: Isotopes are nuclides that have the same atomic number and are therefore
the same element, but differ in the number of neutrons.
2. Isobars: Isobars are those nuclides that have the same mass number (A), but
different numbers of protons and neutrons (Z & N).
3. Isotones: Isotones are those nuclides that have the same number of neutrons (N), but
different numbers of protons and mass numbers (Z & A).

Term Same Different Example

Nuclide Z, N None C-12 (6 protons, 6 neutrons)
Isobar A Z, N C-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons), N-
14 (7 protons, 7 neutrons)
Isotone N Z C-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons), N-
15 (7 protons, 8 neutrons)
Isomer Z, A Energy state Tc-99m (metastable), Tc-99
(ground state)

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Units, dimensions and physical constants

×
Nuclear energies are measured in powers of the unit Electron-volt: 1eV = 1.6x10−19 J. The
electron-volt corresponds to the kinetic energy gained by an electron accelerated through a
potential difference of 1 volt. Nuclear energies are usually in the range of MeV (mega-
electron-volt, or 106eV).
Nuclear masses are measured in terms of the atomic mass unit: 1 amu or 1u = 1.66x10−27kg.
One amu is equivalent to 1/12 of the mass of a neutral ground-state atom of 12C. Since electrons
are much lighter than protons and neutrons (and protons and neutrons have similar mass), one
nucleon has mass of about 1amu.
Because of the mass-energy equivalence, we will often express masses in terms of energy
units. To convert between energy (in MeV) and mass (in amu) the conversion factor is of
course the speed of light square (since E = mc2). In these units we have: c2 = 931.502 MeV/u.
2
- Proton mass: 938.280MeV/c .
2
- Neutron mass: 938.573MeV/c .
2
- Electron mass: 0.511MeV/c .
Scales of magnitude for typical lengths are femtometer (1fm=10 −15m) also called Fermi (F)
and Angstrom 1 Å = 10−10m (for atomic properties) while typical time scales span a very
broad range.
Physical constants that we will encounter include the speed of light, c = 299, 792, 458 m s−1,
the electron charge, e = 1.602176487 10−19 C, the Planck constant h = 6.62606896 10−34 J
s and k, Avogadro’s number Na = 6.02214179 1023 mol−1, the permittivity of vacuum ε 0 =
8.854187817 10−12 F m−1 (F=Faraday) and many others

Nuclear Radius
The radius of a nucleus is not well defined, since we cannot describe a nucleus as a rigid sphere
with a given radius. However, we can still have a practical definition for the range at which the
density of the nucleons inside a nucleus approximate our simple model of a sphere for many
experimental situations (e.g. in scattering experiments).
A simple formula that links the nucleus radius to the number of nucleons is the empirical radius
formula:
R = R0A1/3

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Nuclear Physics Lecture One

Binding energy

Two important nuclear propert that we want to study are the nuclear binding energy and the mass
of nuclides. You could think that since we know the masses of the proton and the neutron, we
could simply find the masses of all nuclides with the simple formula: mN = Zmp + N mn. However,
it is seen experimentally that this is not the case. From special relativity theory, we know that to
each mass corresponds some energy, E = mc2.
Then if we just sum up the masses of all the constituents of a nucleus we would have how much
energy they represent. The mass of a nucleus is also related to its intrinsic energy. It thus makes
sense that this is not only the sum of its constituent energies, since we expect that some other
energy is spent to keep the nucleus together. If the energy were equal, then it wouldn’t be
favorable to have bound nuclei, and all the nuclei would be unstable, constantly changing from
their bound state to a sum of protons and neutrons.
The binding energy of a nucleus is then given by the difference in mass energy between the
nucleus and its constituents. For a nucleus the binding energy B is given by

However, we want to express this quantity in terms of experimentally accessible quantities. Thus
we write the nuclear mass in terms of the atomic mass, that we can measure,

Where mA (AX) is the atomic mass of the nucleus. We further neglect the electronic binding
energy Be by setting mN (AX)c2 = [mA(AX) − Zme]c2.
We finally obtain the expression for the nuclear binding energy:

This binding energy is in amu. For converting it into MeV, we use the fact that 1 amu = 931.47
MeV. So, binding energy BE in MeV is

Now binding energy per nucleon is given as

BE 931.5[ ZMH+(A−Z)Mn−M(A,Z)]
= In MeV/nucleon
A A
Binding energy per nucleon versus mass number A has been plotted in Figure 1, from which the
following conclusions can be drawn:

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Nuclear Physics Lecture One

Fig. 1: Binding energy per nucleon (B/A in MeV vs. A) of stables nuclides (Red) and unstable nuclides (Gray).

1. When mass number is small, i.e. A < 12 the binding energy per nucleon is less and it rises
rapidly with increasing A.
2. Around A = 50, there is a flat maximum, where binding energy per nucleon is
approximately 8.8 MeV. It slowly drops down to 8.4 MeV at A = 140. The average value
of binding energy per nucleon between A = 50 and A = 140 is close to 8.5 MeV.
3. Above A = 140, binding energy per nucleon starts decreasing and at A = 238, its value is
7.6 MeV. It further reduces as A increases.
4. There are sharp peaks for 42He, 48Be, 126C , 168O etc. nuclei. This indicates that these nuclei
are more stable than the neighboring nuclei.
5. If we take two lighter nuclei (say binding energy ~ 1.1 MeV/n) and fuse them together to
form2𝐻𝑒 4 (binding energy ~ 7 MeV/n), there is a gain in binding energy. This indicates
that fusion of lighter nuclei is energetically feasible.
6. If we take a heavy nucleus say A = 240 (binding energy ~ 7.6 MeV/n) and break it into
two lighter nuclei of A 120 (binding energy 8.2 MeV/n), again there is a net gain in binding
energy. Therefore, fission of heavy nuclei is again energetically feasible. It is left as an
exercise to show that fusion of heavy nuclei is not feasible.

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Nuclear Physics Lecture One

Q1 / Find the nuclear binding energy of the nitrogen nucleus 147𝑁 in MeV, if you know that the
mass of the 147𝑁 atom is equal to 14.003074 u, the mass of the hydrogen atom is equal to 1.007825
u, and the mass of the neutron is equal to 1.008665 u, also find the average nuclear binding energy
per nucleon?

Separation energy
The separation energy of any particle is defined as the amount of energy needed to remove a
particle from the nucleus. For a given N,Z; Sn , Sp is larger for nuclei with even N or Z than with
odd one, this due to the pair effect of nuclear force which increase the binding energy and
separation energy.
Quantities of interest are also the neutron, proton and alpha particle separation energies:
For neutron:

Which are the analogous of the ionization energies in atomic physics, reflecting the energies of
the valence nucleons. We will see that these energies show signatures of the shell structure of
nuclei.
Q2: calculate the separation energy of neutron for 209Pb by using the two methods, where
M( 209 208
82𝑃𝑏 ) =209.05398u, M( 82𝑃𝑏 )=208.04754u.

Q3: How much energy is needed to remove a neutron from a nucleus of 41 19𝐾 , whose atomic mass
41
is (40.974856 u), if you know that the atomic mass of ( 19𝐾 is (39.976709 u), and that the mass
of a neutron is (1.008665 u)?