STEMGENPHYSICS2 - HO 5

Maranatha Christian Academy

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
A.Y 2020 - 2021

Modern Physics: ATOMIC AND NUCLEAR PHENOMENA

III. Atomic Spectra

When atoms are excited they emit light of certain wavelengths which correspond to different
colors. The emitted light can be observed as a series of colored lines with dark spaces in
between; this series of colored lines is called a line or atomic spectra. Each element produces
a unique set of spectral lines. Since no two elements emit the same spectral lines, elements can
be identified by their line spectrum.
What is the importance of the line spectra? Line spectra are either emitted or absorbed by
gases that are not dense. In each of the individual thin gases, on the average, the atoms are tar
apart, so the .light is emitted not through the interactions between atoms and molecules unlike
those of solids, liquids, and dense gases. We can say that the line spectra found 1n rarefied
gases serve as the key to the structure of the atom. The structure of the atom must be predicted
by any theory. When atoms emit discrete wavelengths, the theory should predict what the
frequencies of these are.

We are aware that

hydrogen is the simplest atom
because it has only one electron
orbiting its nucleus. Because of
this, it has the simplest
spectrum. Most atoms show a
little apparent regularity. In the
case of hydrogen, the Spacing
between the spectral lines
decreases in a regular way. This
was measured by Balmer (in
Balmer series). It was shown
that the four Visible lines in the
spectrum of hydrogen
(measured in A = 656 nm, 486 nm, 434 nm, and 40 nm).
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IV. The Bohr Model of the Atom
In the periodic table of elements, a gradual change of properties of elements occurred from one
group to another, a problem fascinating enough for scientists to pursue. They wonder if the Bohr model
could account for the periodicity of the elements. In the Bohr model, different elements have different
numbers of electrons arranged in a certain way. The atomic number gives the number of positive
charges in the nucleus and also the number of electrons surrounding the nucleus. Since the periodic
table has somehow arranged the elements according to increasing atomic number, the number of
electrons and how they are arranged must somehow be, related to the chemical properties of elements.
The Bohr model applies to atoms or ions that have only a single electron orbiting a nucleus containing
a proton. This model assumes that the electron exists in circular orbits called stationary orbits, because
the electron does not radiate electromagnetic waves while in them.

According to the model, a photon is emitted only when an electron travels from a higher energy
orbit to a lower energy orbit. To remove an electron from an atom, energy is needed m be supplied.
The energy needed to remove an electron completely from an atom is called ionization energy. To
consider the atomic structure of elements other than hydrogen, it was suggested by Bohr that in
addition to the circular orbits, it is possible to have elliptical orbits, where the nucleus is at one focus.
It was also suggested by Bohr that the electrons are grouped into shells. Each shell contains no more
than a definite number of electrons. The chemical properties of the elements depend upon the number
of electrons in the outermost shell. A chemically stable atom is one in which its outermost shell is full
or contains the maximum allowable number of electrons. Elements in this kind of electron arrangement
will not combine with other elements to form compounds under ordinary conditions. They are listed
under a group known as the inert or noble group of elements.

In the periodic table, elements that belong to the same column or group exhibit similar chemical
properties. In Group 1, they all have one electron in the outermost shell. They also exhibit similarities
in the spectra of the elements like the spectra of hydrogen and lithium. We have now seen the
adequacy of the Bohr model in explaining the observed properties of elements belonging to the same
group. However, the Bohr 'model was found to be inadequate to explain the results of other
experiments particularly those of the spectra of atoms with more than one electron in its outermost
shell. Furthermore, the Bohr model could not provide a way of calculating the intensities of the spectral
lines, which only a complete theory of the structure of the atoms could predict. It also could not account
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for the presence of additional lines in the spectra when the element is placed in a magnetic or electric
field. In spite these numerous defects in the theory of Bohr or the Bohr model, it is still very significant
in the sense that it illuminated the paths to a better understanding of the structure of the atom.

NUCLEAR PHYSICS

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic
nuclei. Atomic physics (or atom physics) is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated
system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. It is primarily concerned with the arrangement of
electrons around the nucleus and the processes by which these arrangements change.

Structure of Nucleus
The discovery of nucleus is usually credited to Ernest
Rutherford as a result of his scattering experiments. The
experiments of Rutherford and others showed that all nuclei
are composed of two particles, protons and neutrons. These
two types of particles are called nucleons, are much more
massive than an electron.

• Neutrons and protons are collectively called nucleons.

• The different nuclei are referred to as nuclides.
• Number of protons: atomic number, Z
• Number of nucleons: atomic mass number, A
• Neutron number: N = A – Z. Therefore, A and Z are sufficient to specify a nuclide.

• X is the chemical symbol for the element; it contains the same information as Z but in a more
easily recognizable form.

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 • The mass number, A, of the nucleus is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons:
A=Z+N

• Nuclei with the same Z – so they are the

same element – but different N are called
isotopes. For many elements, several
different isotopes exist in nature.
• Natural abundance is the percentage of a
particular element that consists of a
particular isotope in nature.
• Masses of atoms are measured with
reference to the carbon-12 atom, which is
assigned a mass of exactly 12u. A u is a
unified atomic mass unit.

• The total mass of a stable nucleus is always less than the sum of the masses of its separate
protons and neutrons.
• The gone mass become energy, such as radiation or kinetic energy, released during the
formation of the nucleus.
• This difference between the total mass of the constituents and the mass of the nucleus is
called the total binding energy of the nucleus.

Stability of Nucleus
• Nuclear stability represents a precarious balance
between two forces inside the nucleus, the strong
force and the electric force. Take two protons, for
example:
• The two protons, having the same (positive) electric charge, repel one another electrically. In
addition, they are attracted to each other by
the so-called strong force, which acts only
when the protons are right next to each other.
Despite its name, however, the strong force is
not enough to hold the protons together, so
we can’t form a nucleus this way. All is not
lost, however (as is obvious from the fact that
atoms exist, even if you never saw one).
Protons are also attracted to neutrons (and

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 neutrons to neutrons) by the strong force, so if we take our two protons and add one or two
neutrons, the net attraction is enough to hold the group together:
• The force that binds together protons and neutrons inside the nucleus is called the Nuclear
Force
• The higher the binding energy per nucleon, the more stable the nucleus.
• More massive nuclei require extra neutrons to overcome the Coulomb repulsion of the protons
in order to be stable.
• The force that binds the nucleons together is called the strong nuclear force. It is a very strong,
but short-range, force. It is essentially zero if the nucleons are more than about 10 -15 m apart.
The Coulomb force is long-range; this is why extra neutrons are needed for stability in high-Z
nuclei.
• Nuclei that are unstable decay; many such decays are governed by another force called the
weak nuclear force.
• Non-stable nuclides decay by emission of particles, or electromagnetic radiation, in a process
called radioactivity

Radioactivity
• Towards the end of the 19th century, minerals were found that would darken a photographic
plate even in the absence of light.
• This phenomenon is now called radioactivity. Marie and Pierre Curie isolated two new
elements that were highly radioactive; they are now called polonium and radium.
• Radioactive rays were observed to be of three types:
1. Alpha rays, which could barely penetrate a piece of paper
2. Beta rays, which could penetrate 3 mm of aluminum
3. Gamma rays, which could penetrate several centimeters of lead.
• Alpha rays are helium nuclei, beta rays are electrons, and gamma rays are electromagnetic
radiation.

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 1. Alpha Decay: nuclei that are too large to be stable tend to decay by alpha decay, the emission
of an alpha particle. [An alpha particle is the 4He nucleus, two protons and two neutrons]

2. Beta decay occurs when a nucleus emits an electron. An example is the decay of carbon-14:

• The nucleus still has 14 nucleons, but it has one more proton and one fewer neutron. This
decay is an example of an interaction that proceeds via the weak nuclear force
• The electron in beta decay is not an orbital electron; it is created in the decay. The
fundamental process is a neutron decaying to a proton, electron, and neutrino:

• The need for a particle such as the neutrino was discovered through analysis of energy and
momentum conservation in beta decay – it could not be a two-particle decay.
• Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to detect, as they interact only weakly, and direct
evidence for their existence was not available until more than 20 years had passed.
• The symbol for the neutrino is the Greek letter nu (ν); using this, we write the beta decay of
carbon-14 as:

• Beta decay can also occur where the nucleus emits a positron rather than an electron:

• And a nucleus can capture one of its inner electrons:

3. Gamma Decay. The energy of internal motion (protons and neutrons in a nucleus is
quantized. A nucleus has a set of allowed energy states (ground state and excited states)
much like in an atom. Transitions between states lead to the emission of very energetic
electromagnetic radiation called γ (gamma) rays.

• Gamma rays are very high-energy photons. They are emitted when a nucleus decays from
an excited state to a lower state, just as photons are emitted by electrons returning to a
lower state.

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Nuclear Fission
• In nature, we find nuclei with atomic numbers up. to 92 (uranium). The most massive of these,
beyond an atomic number of 83, are unstable and gradually decay. In order to clarify and
simplify nuclear reaction equations, let us use the following symbolic notations
Z atomic number
A atomic mass An element
𝐴
X will have a notation of 𝑍𝑋.
• There is another way by which
massive, unstable nuclei such as
uranium and plutonium (Z = 94)
can become more stable. They
can split apart into two more
stable fragments; this process is
called nuclear fission.
• Usually, fission occurs when a
neutron collides with a large,
unstable nucleus (see Figure
66.2). The neutron is absorbed,
making the nucleus more
unstable, and the nucleus then
splits into two. Several neutrons
are released. (These neutrons
may go on to cause the fission of
other large nuclei, and a chain
reaction is set up. This is made
use of in nuclear power stations
and in nuclear explosions.)
• We can represent nuclear fission by nuclear equations.

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 • This means that, when a single neutron collides with a uranium nucleus, fission occurs, forming
isotopes of krypton and barium, and releasing three neutrons. (A neutron is represented by 3n,
and a proton by 11p.)
• Energy is also released. For this equation to be balanced, we require that both the atomic
number and the atomic mass are conserved; that is, the total number of protons, and the total
number of protons and neutrons, must be the same on both sides, because we cannot increase
the total number of particles.

Nuclear Fusion
• Massive nuclei tend to be unstable, and they
can become more stable through the process
of fission. In a similar way, light nuclei can
become more stable by joining together in the
process of nuclear fusion. The fusion of two
light nuclei produces a nucleus of heavier
mass. For example, two light nuclei (such as
different isotopes of hydrogen) fuse to form a
helium nucleus.
• Note that, as with fission, both atomic number
and atomic mass are conserved.
• Often in fusion reactions, the result is not a
single particle but two or more.
• Fusion reaction is accompanied by the release of a large amount of energy. (Fusion reactions
release more energy than fission reactions.) It is the source of energy that keeps stars (such as
the sun) shining for billions of years.

Uses of Nuclear Energy

• Uses in Industry
• Uses in Medicine
• Uses in Agriculture
• Uses in Research

STANDARD MODEL OF PARTICLE PHYSICS

• In particle physics, an elementary particle is a particle

whose substructure is unknown, thus it is unknown
whether it is composed of other particles.
• Known elementary particles include the fundamental
fermions(quarks, leptons, antiquarks and antileptons),
which generally are "matter particles" and “antimatter
particles",
• As well as the fundamental bosons (gauge bosons and
Higgs bosons), which generally are "force particles"
that mediate interactions among fermions.

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 • The Standard Model explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by four
fundamental forces and classifies all the subatomic particles known. Because of its success in
explaining a wide variety of experimental results, the Standard Model is sometimes regarded as
a "theory of almost everything"

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 • The Standard Model includes members of several classes of elementary particles (fermions,
gauge bosons, and the Higgs boson), which in turn can be distinguished by other characteristics,
such as color charge.

Fermions are divided into two groups of six, those that must bind together are called Quarks and those
that can exist independently are called Leptons.

• Fermions obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle. They are characterized by Fermi-Dirac statistics.
They have half integer spin.

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Gauge Bosons are of four types and are classified on the basis of force they interact with Photon-
Electromagnetic Force, Gluon- Strong Force, W and Z boson- Weak Force
• They have integral spins and the spin of photon, gluon, W and Z boson is 1.

HIGGS BOSON
• The Higgs particle is a massive scalar elementary particle theorized by Robert Brout, Francois
Englert, Peter Higgs, Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, and Tom Kibble in 1964 and is a key building
block in the Standard Model
• It has no intrinsic spin, and for that reason is classified as a boson.
• Because the Higgs boson is a very massive particle and also decays almost immediately when
created, only a very high-energy particle accelerator can observe and record it.
• On 14 March 2013 the Higgs Boson was tentatively confirmed to exist.
• On December 10, 2013, two of them, Peter Higgs and François Englert, were awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physics for their work and prediction.

FUNDAMENTAL FORCES
• The Standard Model classified all four fundamental forces in nature. In the Standard Model, a
force is described as an exchange of bosons between the objects affected, such as a photon for
the electromagnetic force and a gluon for the strong interaction. Those particles are called force
carriers.

LIMITATIONS
• The model does not incorporate the full theory of gravitation, as described by general relativity
or account for the accelerating expansion of the universe.
• The model does not contain any viable dark matter particle that possesses all of the required
properties deduced from observational cosmology.
• It also does not incorporate neutrino oscillations (and their non-zero masses).

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CHALLENGES
• GRAVITY - The standard model does not explain gravity. The approach of simply adding a
"graviton" to the Standard Model does not recreate what is observed experimentally without
other modifications. Moreover, instead, the Standard Model is widely considered to be
incompatible with the most successful theory of gravity to date, general relativity.
• DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY - Cosmological observations tell us the standard model
explains about 5% of the energy present in the universe. About 26% should be dark matter,
which would behave just like other matter, but which only interacts weakly (if at all) with the
Standard Model fields. Yet, the Standard Model does not supply any fundamental particles that
are good dark matter candidates. The rest (69%) should be dark energy, a constant energy
density for the vacuum. Attempts to explain dark energy in terms of vacuum energy of the
standard model lead to a mismatch of 120 orders of magnitude.
• MATTER-ANTIMATTER ASYMMETRY - The universe is made out of mostly matter. However,
the standard model predicts that matter and antimatter should have been created in (almost)
equal amounts if the initial conditions of the universe did not involve disproportionate matter
relative to antimatter. Yet, no mechanism sufficient to explain this asymmetry exists in the
Standard Model.
• MUONIC HYDROGEN - Standard Model makes precise theoretical predictions regarding the
atomic radius size of ordinary hydrogen (a protonelectron system) and that of muonic hydrogen
(a proton-muon system in which a muon is a "heavy" variant of an electron). However, the
measured atomic radius of muonic hydrogen differs significantly from that of the radius predicted
by the Standard Model.

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