Nuclear Phenomenology

3C24
Nuclear and Particle Physics
Tricia Vahle & Simon Dean
(based on Lecture Notes from Ruben Saakyan)
UCL
 Nuclear Notation
• Z – atomic number = number of protons
N – neutron number = number of neutrons
A – mass number = number of nucleons
(Z+N)
• Nuclides AX (16O, 40Ca, 55Fe etc…)
– Nuclides with the same A – isobars
– Nuclides with the same Z – isotopes
– Nuclides with the same N – isotones
 Masses and binding energies
• Something we know very well:
– Mp = 938.272 MeV/c2, Mn = 939.566 MeV/c2
• One might think that
– M(Z,A) = Z Mp + N Mn - not the case !!!
• In real life
– M(Z,A) < Z Mp + N Mn
• The mass deficit
 DM(Z,A) = M(Z,A) - Z Mp - N Mn
– –DMc2 – the binding energy B.
– B/A – the binding energy per nucleon, the minimum
energy required to remove a nucleon from the
nucleus
 Binding energy

Binding energy per nucleon as function of A for stable nuclei

 Nuclear Forces
• Existence of stable nuclei suggests
attractive force between nucleons
• But they do not collapse  there must be
a repulsive core at very short ranges
• From pp-scattering, the range of nucleon-
nucleon force is short which does not
correspond to the exchange of gluons
 Nuclear Forces
d
• Charge symmetric pp=nn
+V0
• Almost charge –independent
V(r) r=R d<<R pp=nn=pn
Range~R – mirror nuclei, e.g. 11B 11C
B/A ~ V0
• Strongly spin-dependent
0
r – Deutron exists: pn with spin-1
– pn with spin-0 does not
• Nuclear forces saturate
-V0 (B/A is not proportional to A)

Approximate description
of nuclear potential
 Nuclei. Shapes and sizes.
• Scattering experiments to find out shapes and
sizes
• Rutherford cross-section:

 d  Z 2 2 ( c) 2
  
 d   Rutherford 4 E 2
sin 4
( / 2)

• Taking into account spin: Mott cross-section

 d   d  v
     
1   2
sin 2
( / 2)  , 
 d  Mott  d   Rutherford c
 Nuclei. Shapes and Sizes.
• Nucleus is not an elementary particle
• Spatial extension must be taken into account
• If f ( x ) – spatial charge distribution, then we define form
factor F (q 2 ) as the Fourier transform of f ( x )
1
F (q )   Ze   f ( x )d 3 x
2 iq x / 3
e f ( x ) d x,
Ze
 d   d  2 2
    F (q )
 d  exp t  d   Mott
F (q 2 ) can be extracted experimentally, then f ( x ) found from
Ze
3 
 iq x /
inverse Fourier f (x)  2
F ( q )e 3
d q
transform (2 )
In practice d/d falls very rapidly with angle
 Shapes and sizes
• Parameterised form is chosen for charge
distribution, form-factor is calculated from
Fourier transform
• A fit made to the data
• Resulting charge distributions can be fitted by
 0
ch (r )  ch
( r c ) / a
c = 1.07A1/3 fm
1 e a = 0.54 fm

• Charge density approximately constant in the

nuclear interior and falls rapidly to zero at the
nuclear surface
Radial charge distribution of
various nuclei
 Shapes and sizes
• Mean square radius

 ch
2 1/ 2
r ~ r 2
 ( r ) dr  0.94 A1/ 3
fm for medium and heavy nuclei

• Homogeneous charged sphere is a good

approximation
Rcharge = 1.21 A1/3 fm
• If instead of electrons we will use hadrons to
bombard nuclei, we can probe the nuclear density
of nuclei
nucl ≈ 0.17 nucleons/fm3
Rnuclear ≈ 1.2 A1/3 fm
 Liquid drop model: semi-empirical
mass formula
• Semi-empirical formula: theoretical basis
combined with fits to experimental data
• Assumptions
– The interior mass densities are approximately equal
– Total binding energies approximately proportional their
masses

5
M ( Z , A)   fi ( Z , A)
i 0
 Semi-empirical mass formula
• “0th“term
f 0 ( Z , A)  ZM p  ( A  Z ) M n

• 1st correction, volume term

f1 ( Z , A)  a1 A
• 2d correction, surface term
f 2 ( Z , A)   a2 A2 / 3
• 3d correction, Coulomb term

Z2
f3 ( Z , A)  a3 1/ 3
A
 Semi-empirical mass formula
• 4th correction, asymmetry term
( Z  A / 2)2
f 4 ( Z , A)  a4
A
• Taking into account spins and Pauli principle gives 5th
correction, pairing term
f5 ( Z , A)   f ( A), if Z even, A - Z  N even
f5 ( Z , A)  0, if Z even, A - Z  N odd; or Z odd, A - Z  N even
f5 ( Z , A)   f ( A), if Z odd, A - Z  N odd
f ( A)  a5 A1/ 2  by fitting the data

• Pairing term maximises the binding when both Z and N

are even
 Semi-empirical mass formula
Constants
• Commonly used notation
a1 = av, a2 = as, a3 = ac, a4 =aa, a5 = ap
• The constants are obtained by fitting binding energy
data
• Numerical values
av = 15.67, as = 17.23, ac = 0.714, aa = 93.15, ap= 11.2
• All in MeV/c2
 Nuclear stability
• n(p) unstable: -(+)
decay
• The maximum binding
p-unstable energy is around Fe
and Ni
• Fission possible for
heavy nuclei
– One of decay product –
-particle (4He nucleus)
n-unstable • Spontaneous fission
possible for very heavy
nuclei with Z  110
– Two daughters with
similar masses
 -decay. Phenomenology
• Rearranging SEMF
d
M ( Z , A)   A   Z   Z 2

A1/ 2
as aa
  M n  av  1/ 3 
A 4
  aa  ( M n  M p  me )
aa ac
   1/ 3
A A
d  ap
• Odd-mass and even-mass nuclei lie on different
parabolas
Odd-mass nuclei
1)   : n  p  e  e
101
Mo  101Tc  e  e

M ( Z , A)  M ( Z  1, A)

2)   : p  n  e    e
101
Pd  101Rh  e    e

M ( Z , A)  M ( Z  1, A)  2me

3) Electron capture
Even-mass nuclei

 emitters lifetimes vary

from ms to 1016 yrs
 -decay
 -decay is energetically allowed if

B(2,4) > B(Z,A) – B(Z-2,A-4)

• Using SEMF and assuming that along stability

line Z = N

B(2,4) > B(Z,A) – B(Z-2,A-4) ≈ 4 dB/dA

28.3 ≈ 4(B/A – 7.7×10-3 A)

• Above A=151 -decay becomes energetically

possible
-decay
TUNELLING:
T = exp(-2G) G – Gamow factor

G≈2(Z-2)/ ~ Z/E
Small differences in E, strong effect
on lifetime

Lifetimes vary from 10ns to

1017 yrs (tunneling effect)
 Spontaneous fission
• Two daughter nuclei are approximately
equal mass (A > 100)
• Example: 238U  145La + 90Br + 3n (156
MeV energy release)
• Spontaneous fission becomes dominant
only for very heavy elements A  270
• SEMF: if shape is not spherical it will
increase surface term and decrease
Coulomb term
 Deformed nuclei
If nucleus deformed we can parameterise deformation by
R
a  R (1   ) b
1 
which preserves the volume
4 4
V   R   ab 2
3

3 3
To find new surface and Coulomb terms we have to
find expression for the surface of ellipsoid in in terms of
a and b and expand it in a power series in  . The result:
2 2 1 2
Es  as A (1    ...) and Ec  ac Z A (1    ...)
2/3 2 1/ 3

5 5
 Spontaneous fission
• The change in total energy due to
deformation:
DE = (1/5)  2 (2as A2/3 – ac Z2 A-1/3)
• If DE < 0, the deformation is energetically
favourable and fission can occur
• This happens if Z2/A  2as/ac ≈ 48 which
happens for nuclei with Z > 114 and
A  270