IB PHYSICS

Atomic, nuclear and particle physics

Edited by Dr. K. Tampakis, MSc.

 7.1 Discrete energy and radioactivity

Gases on low pressures absorb or emit light in specific wavelengths. The set of all possible
wavelengths are called omission or absorption spectra.

Niels Bohr was the physicist who suggested in 1913 that energy in an atom was discrete,
meaning that it could take a specific set of values. Possible energies are since represented by
energy level diagrams. Bohr stated that photons in spectra are created when an electron in an
atom absorbs energy and jumps from the ground state, its basic energy, to a higher energy
level, the excited state. The electron then makes a transition to lower levels of energy in a
process called relaxation. As it does, it emits photons, whose energy obeys the Planck formula:

E = h·f
with h being the Planck constant (h=6,63·10-34 J·S) and f being the photon’s frequency. Thus,
for atom emissions, we get

Efinal – Einitial = h·f

TIP: Be careful, because energy levels are typically given in eV and need converting to J!

Edited by K. Tampakis 2
The same theory explains absorption spectra. Absorption spectra are created when light is
send through a gas container, and seeing which wavelengths are absorbed. For any gas,
absorption spectra also appear to have linear ‘holes’ in them, which completely correspond to
those created by emission spectra. This is due to the fact that light is absorbed exactly because
electrons use the specific energies to jump to an excited state.

Edited by K. Tampakis 3
Protons and neutrons in an a nuclei also display an energy level structure similar to electrons.
They display nuclear energy levels.

The structure of the nucleus

The subatomic particles found in a nucleus, that is protons and neutrons, are called collectively
nucleons. Each nucleus is characterized by two numbers, its atomic number Z which shows the
number of existing protons and its mass number A, which shows the total number of nucleons.
If N is also the number of neutrons, then

A = Z+N
This are depicted for each element as follows

A specific nucleus with a specific number of protons and neutrons is also called a nuclide.

Nucleons and subatomic particles can also be displayed in a similar way

Edited by K. Tampakis 4
Isotopes are nuclei that have the same number of protons but different number of neutrons.
They have identical chemical properties- they are indeed of the same element- but different
physical properties. Many elements have more than one isotope.

Isotopes of Hydrogen

Radioactive decay

Some nuclei are unstable, meaning that they randomly and spontaneously emit particles that
carry energy from inside the nucleus. This phenomenon is called radioactivity or radioactive
decay. There are three distinct omissions and three different decays: Alpha decay which omits
alpha particles, beta decay which omits beta particle and gamma decay which omits gamma
particles. Each has different ionizing and penetrating power and each decay changes the
original nucleus in different ways. In alpha and beta decay, the nucleus becomes that of a new
element.

Edited by K. Tampakis 5
Alpha decay emits an alpha particle and the parent nucleus loses two protons and two
neutrons

Beta decay emits either an electron and an electron anti-neutrino (beta minus decay) or a
positron and electron neutrino (beta plus decay).

β- decay

Edited by K. Tampakis 6
 β+ decay

Gamma decay emits a high frequency photon due to being in a high nuclear energy level. Other
than moving to a lower nuclear level, it leaves the nucleus unchanged.

Not all elements perform all three decays. In fact, each element has a specific series of decays it
performs, until it reaches a stable configuration. This is called the decay series of its nucleus.

Uranium decay series

The law of radioactive decay: Since radioactive decay is random and spontaneous, the rate of
decay is proportional to the number of nuclei not already decayed.

ΔΝ
~Ν
Ν
This results in an exponential expression for the number of decreased nuclei.

Edited by K. Tampakis 7
Activity is the number of decays per second of a radioactive sample. It is measured in Bq.

Half-life: Due to the exponential nature of radioactive decay, for each element there is a
constant amount of time after which its activity has been halved. This is called its half-life. It is
also the amount of time after which half its nuclei will have decayed.

Half-life can also be used as an indicator of the probability a specific nucleus will decay in an
amount of time. There is 50% chance of a specific nucleus decaying in the time interval of a
half life.

Fundamental forces

There are four fundamental interactions recognized in the Standard Model of Particles
currently accepted by the scientific community

 The electromagnetic interaction acts on any particle that has a charge. It obeys
Coulomb’s law and has infinite range.
 The weak nuclear interaction acts on protons, neutrons, electrons and neutrinos and
brings about beta decay. It has a very short range (10 -18m). Electromagnetic and weak
nuclear interactions have been shown to be two sides of the same interaction, called
electroweak.
 The strong nuclear interaction acts on protons and neutrons and keeps them bound
inside the nucleus. It has an extremely short range (10 -15). The presence of the force
explains why larger nuclei need a large number of neutrons to be stable, thus opposing
the electromagnetic interaction of protons.
 The gravitational interaction is an attractive force between masses.

Edited by K. Tampakis 8
 7.2 Nuclear reactions

In atomic and nuclear physics, it is more convenient to use the atomic mass unit u to measure
mass. It is equal to 1/12 of the mass of a 12C atom.

1 u= 1,6605402 ·10-27 kg.

Mass defect δ and binding energy

In every nucleus, its has been measured that the mass of the nucleus is smaller than the sum of
its protons and its neutrons. That means that the nucleus weights less than the sum of its
constituent parts. This is knows as the mass defect δ of the nucleus

δ= Ζ·mp + (A-Z)·mn - Mnucleus

According to Einstein’s famous equation E=m·c2, its mass corresponds to an amount of energy.
The energy equivalent of the mass defect δ is called binding energy. It is a measure of how
stable the nucleus is, that is of how easy it is to remove nucleons from the nucleus.

Binding energy = δ · c2

The binding energy curve

The following graph shows the variation of binding energy per nucleon B.E/A with mass
number A. Notice the following

 H has zero binding energy (since it consists of only one nucleon).

 There are peaks around He, C and O, which makes relatively stable compared to their
neighbours.
 The curve’s maximum is at A=62, slowly falling afterwards.
 After A=20, the BE/A is from 7 to 9 for most elements. For large nuclei, all nucleons are
surrounded by the same number of immediate neighboring nucleons, making the
amount of strong force they receive more or less the same. Thus, the energy needed to
remove them is more or less the same.

Edited by K. Tampakis 9
Energy released in decay.

For decay to occur, the mass difference Δm between the total mass of reactants and the total
mass of products must be positive.

Δm= total mass of reactants - the total mass of product

The energy releaces is calculated as normal, Q = Δm·c2.

Nuclear fission

Nuclear fisison is the induced process where a heavy nucleus splits into lighter nuclei, usualy
by absorbing a nucleon. A typical such reaction is that of Uranium.

Edited by K. Tampakis 10
Nuclear fission typically produces neutrons. These have enough energy to further split
additional nuclei, producing a self-sustaining chain reaction. However, a minimum mass of
uranium is needed to get the reaction going, otherwise the neutrons escape. This is called the
critical mass.

Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion is the induced joining of two lighter nuclei into a heavier one. The most common
example is that od deuterium merging into helium.

Nuclear fusion produces energy comprabale to that of fission and is nuch more environmentally
friendly and operationally safe. However, so far there have been serious technical difficulties in
achieving it.

It is once again the binding curve, which shows whether fission or fusion is possible for a
nucleus. Nuclei to the left of Ni become more stable by fusion, while those to the right, by
fission.
Ni

Edited by K. Tampakis 11
 7.3 The structure of matter

The Rutherford experiment

Before 1910, the prevalent idea for the atom was the Thomson model. It posited that the atom
was a sphere around 10-10 in diameter, in which electrons moved about, like raisins in a raisin
bread. In 1911, Rutherford and his assistants Geiger and Marsden performed the famous
Rutherford experiment.

Alpha particles were directed at a

thin gold foil inside a vacuous
chamber, measuring the angles of
deflection. According to the
Thomson model, it was expected
that most of the alpha particles
travel straight through the foil with
little deviation, with the remainder
being deviated by a percent or two.
Instead, they found, to great
surprise, while most of the alpha
particles passed straight through the
foil, a small percentage of them
were deflected at very large angles
and some were even backscattered.

Such a result could only be explained if most of the mass and positive charge of the atom was
confined in a much smaller area of 10-15. This was the first definite proof of the existence of a
nucleus and led to Rutherford‘s model of the atom, in which a nucleus is orbited by electrons
like a miniature solar system.

Edited by K. Tampakis 12
 Elementary particles

Elementary particles are those which are not made out of any smaller component particles.
There are three classes of elementary particles, the quarks, the leptons and the exchange
particles.

Quarks

There are six types, or flavors, of quarks. Each quark has also a companion anti-particle, for
which all properties except mass (charge, flavor etc) have opposite values. These are denoted
by a bar on top, for example d̅ .

Particles made from quarks are called hadrons.

 When three quarks combine, they form a baryon. Protons (uud) and neutrons (udd) are
baryons.
 ̅ ) are mesons.
When a quark combines with an anti-quark, the form a meson. Pions π+ (ud

Quarks also have a baryon number, which +1/3 for quarks and -1/3 for antiquarks. Baryon
number, like charge, is conserved in all reaction.

Hadrons decay, like nuclei do. Short lifetimes of around 10 -25 indicate strong interaction. Longer
lifetimes of 10-10 indicate the weak interaction. To explain the way different particles decayed,
we assign the property of strangeness to the s quark only. It is conserved only in strong and
E/M interactions, but not in weak interactions.

Quarks exhibit confinement. The total energy to separate a quark from another quark or anti-
quark in a particle grows as distance grows, and thus becomes infinite for total separation.
Thus, it is not possible to observe isolated quarks.

Edited by K. Tampakis 13
Leptons

There are six types of leptons, the electron and its neutrino, the muon and its neutrino and the
tau and its neutrino.

Edited by K. Tampakis 14
All leptons interact with the weak nuclear interaction and all leptons have the quantum
number called family lepton number. These are Le for the electron and the electron neutrino;
Lμ for the muon and the muon neutrino and Lτ  for the tau and the tau neutrino. The family
lepton number is conserved in all interactions and it is +1 for particles and -1 for antiparticles.

Exchange particles

Exchange particles is how interactions are explained in particle physics. Each fundamental force
has a particle which is exchanged when two bodies are said to interact. For example, two
charged particles are repulsed, because they exchange a photon. The momentum and energy
change experienced creates the experience of force. The forces and their exchange particles
are seen below.

10-41

Interactions are described by Feynman diagrams. In them, we use interaction vertexes. Wiggly
lines are exchange particles, and particles going from right to left (against time) are anti-
particles. Interactions can then be described as follows:

 Electron absorbing a photon and electron emitting a photon

Edited by K. Tampakis 15
  Positron absorbing a photon and electron emitting a photon

 Photon materializes into electron-positron pair

 Electron-positron annihilation

 Example of annihilation and subsequent materialization

Edited by K. Tampakis 16
For the weak interaction, it is good to remember that

 Here are all probable W interactions. Plus or minus is the same for all particles

 Beta decay is due to weak interaction

Edited by K. Tampakis 17
  Electron-neutrino collisions are mediated through the Z0 boson, since it does not change
charge or mass (Notice where the t-axis is!)

The Higgs particle: The Higgs particle is responsible, through its interactions, for the mass of all
particles in the Standard Model.

Edited by K. Tampakis 18