NUCLEUS

Size of Nucleus
(1) Nuclear radius : Experimental results indicates that the nuclear radius is proportional to A1/3, where
A is the mass number of nucleus i.e. R  A 1 / 3  R  R 0 A 1 / 3 , where R0 = 1.2  10–15 m = 1.2 fm.
4 4
(2) Nuclear volume : The volume of nucleus is given by V   R 3   R 03 A  V  A
3 3
(3) Nuclear density : Mass per unit volume of a nucleus is called nuclear density.
Mass of nucleus mA
Nuclear density ( )  
Volume of nucleus 4
 (R0 A1 / 3 )3
3
where m = Average of mass of a nucleon (= mass of proton + mass of neutron = 1.66  10–27 kg) and mA
= Mass of nucleus
 
3m
 2 . 38  10 17 kg / m 3
4 R 03

Atomic Mass Unit (amu)

(1) In nuclear physics, a convenient unit of mass is the unified atomic mass unit abbreviated u.
1 12
(2) The amu is defined as th mass of a BC at on.
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(3) 1 amu (or 1 u) = 1.6605402  10–27 kg .

(4) Masses of electron, proton and neutrons :
Mass of electron (me) = 9.1  10–31 kg = 0.0005486 amu, Mass of proton (mp) = 1.6726  10–27 kg =
1.007276 amu
Mass of neutron (mn) = 1.6750  10–27 kg = 1.00865 amu, Mass of hydrogen atom (me + mp) = 1.6729  10–27 kg =
1.0078 amu
(5) The energy associated with a nuclear process is usually large, of the order of MeV.
(6) According to Einstein, mass and energy are inter convertible. The Einstein's mass energy relationship
is given by E  mc 2
If m = 1 amu, c = 3  108 m/sec then E = 931 MeV i.e. 1 amu is equivalent to 931 MeV or
1 amu (or 1 u) = 931 MeV
(1 u) c2 = 931 MeV  1u  931
MeV
or c 2  931
MeV
c2 u
Nuclear Reactions
The process by which the identity of a nucleus is changed when it is bombarded by an energetic particle
is called nuclear reaction. The general expression for the nuclear reaction is as follows.
X  a  C 
 Y  b  Q
(Parent nucleus) (Incident particle) (Compound nucleus) ( Compound nucleus) (Product particles) ( Energy)

Here X and a are known as reactants and Y and b are known as products. This reaction is known as (a, b)
reaction and can be represented as X (a, b) Y
(1) Q value or energy of nuclear reaction: The energy absorbed or released during nuclear reaction is
known as Q-value of nuclear reaction.
Q-value = (Mass of reactants – mass of products) c2 Joules
= (Mass of reactants – mass of products) amu
If Q < 0, The nuclear reaction is known as endothermic. (The energy is absorbed in the reaction)
If Q > 0, The nuclear reaction is known as exothermic (The energy is released in the reaction)
Mass Defect :- The difference between the rest mass of a nucleus and the sum of the rest masses of its constituent nucleons is
called its muss defect.
A
Consider a nucleus Z X , where A is mass number and Z is atomic No. having Z protons and (A-Z) neutrons.
 Mass defect will be m  Zm p   A  Z mn  m
Binding Energy :- It is defined as the energy required to break up a nucleus into its constituent protons and neutrons and to
separate them to such a large distance that they may not interact with each after.
It can be calculated by the eq.
Eb  MC 2


Eb  Zm p   A  Z mn m C 2
B.E. per Nucleon :- It is average energy required to extract one nucleon from the nucleus. It is obtained by dividing B.E. by its
Eb
mass No. i.e. Ebn 
A
Binding Energy curve :- The value of B.E. per nucleon of a nucleus gives a measure of stability of that nucleus. Greater is the B.E.
per nucleon of a nucleus more stable is the nucleus. The binding energy curve revels the following important features:
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1) Except for some nuclei like 2 He , 6 C and 8 O the value of B.E. nucleon lie on or near of a smooth curve.
1
2) The B.E. nucleon is small for light nuclei like 1 H ,12 H and 13 H .
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3) In the mass number range 2 to 20, there are well defined maxima and minima on the curve. The maxima occur for 2 He , 6 C
16
and 8 O , indicating the higher stability of these nuclei the neighboring ones. The minima corresponding to low stability,
6 10 14
occur for 3 Li, 5 B and 7 N .
4) The range curve has a broad maximum close to the value 8.5 Mev/nucleon in the mass No. range from about 40 to 120. It
56
has a peak value of 8.8 Mev/nucleon for 26 Fe .
238
5) As the mass no. increases further, the B.E./nucleon shows a gradual decrease and drops to 7.6 Mev/nucleon for 92 U . This
decrease is due to coulomb repulsion between the protons which makes the heavier nuclei less stable.

Variation of Nuclear force with nuclear distance: -

Graph in the fig showing the variation of potential energy U(in MeV) of a pair of nucleons as function of their separation r(in
fm).
Conclusion: (i) in the graph region ABCD (r>r0) shows the region where nuclear force is strongly attractive.
(ii) the region DE(r<r0) shows the region where nuclear force is strongly repulsive.

Properties of nuclear forces:-

(i) They are spin dependent.
(ii) They are charge independent
(iii) They are exchange forces
(iv) They do not obey the inverse square law
(v) It is extremely short-range force.
Fission
New possibilities emerge when we go beyond natural radioactive decays and study nuclear reactions by bombarding
nuclei with other nuclear particles such as proton, neutron, -particle, etc. A most important neutron-induced nuclear
reaction is fission. An example of fission is when a uranium isotope 23592U bombarded with a neutron breaks into two
intermediate mass nuclear fragments

(1)
The same reaction can produce other pairs of intermediate mass fragments

(2)
Or, as another example,
(3)
The fragment products are radioactive nuclei; they emit particles in succession to achieve stable end products.
The energy released (the Q value) in the fission reaction of nuclei like uranium is of the order of 200 MeV per fissioning
nucleus. This is estimated as follows:
Let us take a nucleus with A = 240 breaking into two fragments each
of A = 120. Then
Ebn for A = 240 nucleus is about 7.6 MeV,
Ebn for the two A = 120 fragment nuclei is about 8.5 MeV.
Gain in binding energy for nucleon is about 0.9 MeV.
Hence the total gain in binding energy is 240×0.9 or 216 MeV.
The disintegration energy in fission events first appears as the kinetic energy of the fragments and neutrons. Eventually it
is transferred to the surrounding matter appearing as heat. The source of energy in nuclear reactors, which produce
electricity, is nuclear fission. The enormous energy released in an atom bomb comes from uncontrolled nuclear fission.

Nuclear fusion – energy generation in stars

When two light nuclei fuse to form a larger nucleus, energy is released, since the larger nucleus is more tightly bound, as
seen from the binding energy curve in Fig.. Some examples of such energy liberating nuclear fusion reactions are :
(1)
(2)
(3)
In the first reaction, two protons combine to form a deuteron and a positron with a release of 0.42 MeV energy. In
reaction [2], two deuterons combine to form the light isotope of helium. In reaction (3), two deuterons combine to form a
triton and a proton. For fusion to take place, the two nuclei must come close enough so that attractive short-range nuclear
force is able to affect them. However, since they are both positively charged particles, they experience coulomb repulsion.
They, therefore, must have enough energy to overcome this coulomb barrier. The height of the barrier depends on the
charges and radii of the two interacting nuclei. It can be shown, for example, that the barrier height for two protons is ~
400 keV, and is higher for nuclei with higher charges. We can estimate the temperature at which two protons in a proton
gas would (averagely) have enough energy to overcome the coulomb barrier:
(3/2)k T = K ≃ 400 keV, which gives T ~ 3 × 109 K.
When fusion is achieved by raising the temperature of the system so that particles have enough kinetic energy to
overcome the coulomb repulsive behavior, it is called thermonuclear fusion.
Thermonuclear fusion is the source of energy output in the interior of stars. The interior of the sun has a temperature of
1.5×107 K, which is considerably less than the estimated temperature required for fusion of particles of average energy.
Clearly, fusion in the sun involves protons whose energies are much above the average energy.
The fusion reaction in the sun is a multi-step process in which the hydrogen is burned into helium. Thus, the fuel in the sun
is the hydrogen in its core. The proton-proton (p, p) cycle by which this occurs is represented by the following sets of
reactions:

(4)
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 nucleus. If we consider the combination 2(i) + 2(ii) + 2(iii) +(iv), the net effect is

(5)
4
Thus, four hydrogen atoms combine to form an 2𝐻𝑒 atom with a release of 26.7 MeV of energy.
Helium is not the only element that can be synthesized in the interior of a star. As the hydrogen in the core gets depleted
and becomes helium, the core starts to cool. The star begins to collapse under its own gravity which increases the
temperature of the core. If this temperature increases to about 108 K, fusion takes place again, this time of helium nuclei
into carbon.
This kind of process can generate through fusion higher and higher mass number elements. But elements more massive
than those near the peak of the binding energy curve in Fig. cannot be so produced.

The age of the sun is about 5×109 y and it is estimated that there is enough hydrogen in the sun to keep it going for
another 5 billion years.
After that, the hydrogen burning will stop and the sun will begin to cool and will start to collapse under gravity, which will
raise the core temperature. The outer envelope of the sun will expand, turning it into the so called red giant.