Lecture 3

Initial Mass Function and

Chemical Evolution

Essentials of Nuclear Structure

The Liquid Drop Model
See Shapiro and Teukolsky
for background reading
 just a fit

Salpeter used
ς (log M ) = C M Γ
withΓ = −1.35
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

But Figer (2005) gets

 =-0.9 in a young
supercluster.
Warning. Salpeter
IMF not appropriate
below about 0.5
solar masses. Actual
IMF is flatter. Used
MS here.
 dM
d log M = Since  = -1.35
M

sensitive to
choice of ML
Use MS Table instead.

For Salpeter IMF

2 solar masses/Gyr/pc2 solar neighborhood
45 solar masses/pc2
current values - Berteli and Nasi (2001)
9
Upper mass limit: theoretical predictions
radial pulsation, e- opacity,
Ledoux (1941) 100 M
H

radial pulsation, e- opacity,

Schwarzchild & Härm (1959) 65-95 M
H and He, evolution

Stothers & Simon (1970) radial pulsation, e- and atomic 80-120 M

Larson & Starrfield (1971) pressure in HII region 50-60 M

e- and atomic opacity

Cox & Tabor (1976) 80-100 M
Los Alamos

e- and atomic opacity

Klapp et al. (1987) 440 M
Los Alamos

e- and atomic opacity

Stothers (1992) 120-150 M
Rogers-Iglesias
Upper mass limit: observation
R136 Feitzinger et al. (1980) 250-1000 M

Eta Car various 120-150 M

R136a1 Massey & Hunter

(1998) 136-155 M

Pistol Star Figer et al. (1998) 140-180 M

Eta Car Damineli et al. (2000) ~70+? M

LBV 1806-20 Eikenberry et al. (2004) 150-1000 M

LBV 1806-20 Figer et al. (2004) 130 (binary?) M

HDE 269810 Walborn et al. (2004) 150 M

Bonanos et al. (2004)

WR20a (binary) 82+83 M each +- 5 Msun
Rauw et al. (2004)
What is the most massive star (nowadays)?

The Arches Supercluster

Massive enough and young

enough to contain stars of 500
solar masses if extrapolate Salpeter
IMF

Figer, Nature, 434, 192 (2005)

Kim, Figer, Kudritzki and Najarro
ApJ, 653L, 113 (2006)
Lick 3-m (1995)
Keck 10-m (1998)
HST (1999)
Initial mass function
Introductory Nuclear
Physics;
Liquid Drop
Model
Each nucleus is a bound collection of
N neutrons and Z protons. The mass
number is A = N + Z, the atomic number is Z
and the nucleus is written

AZ

12
E.g. C, 13C, 14 C are isotopes of carbon all
with Z = 6 and neutron num bers
N = 6, 7, 8

The neutronsand protonsare bound togetherby

the strong or color force
 In fact, the neutron and proton are themselves
collections of smaller fundamental quarks.

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p
4
He
In addition there is
a collection of bosons
whose exchange
mediates the four
fundamental forces.

, W+-, Z0, gluon,

graviton

Only quarks and gluons

experience the “color”
force and quarks are
never found in isolation
In the standard model ….

Hadrons are collections of three quarks (baryons) or a

quark plus an anti-quark (mesons). This way they are able
to satisfy a condition of color neutrality. Since there are three
colors of quarks, the only way to have neutrality is to
have one of each color, or one plus an antiparticle of the same
(anti-)color.

The gluons also carry color (and anti-color) and there are
eight possible combinations, hence 8 gluons.

The color force only affects quarks and gluons.

 The color force binds the quarks in the hadrons

A red quark emits a red-antigreen gluon which

is absorbed by a green quark making it red.
The weak interaction allows heavier quarks and
leptons to decay into lighter ones. E.g.,

n → p + e− + ν e udd → uud

and if energy isprovided

p + e− → n + ν e

For background on all this, please read

http://particleadventure.org
d → u means a charge of -1/3 goes to
a charge of + 2/3. The W - is necessary to
conserve charge.

intermediate stages not observable

Mesons are quark antiquark pairs and this carry
no net spin. The lightest two mesons consist only
of combinations of u, d, u, and d are

Name Made of Charge Mass τ (sec)

o uu −dd
π 0 135 MeV 8.4(-17)
2
π± ud , du ±1 139.6 2.6(-8)

π ± → μ ± +ν μ π 0 → 2γ , occasionally e + + e -

There are many more mesons. Exchange of these lightest mesons give
rise to a force that is complicated, but attractive. But at
a shorter range, many other mesons come into play, notably
the rho meson (776 MeV), and the nuclear force becomes repulsive.
There are two ways of thinking of the
strong force - as a residual color interaction
or as the exchange of mesons. Classically
the latter was used.
ΔE Δt ≈h
Mc 2 l / c ≈ h

The nuclear force at large

distances is not just small,
it is zero.

Repulsive at short distances.

Nuclear density nearly

constant.
･ The nuclear force is only felt among hadrons.

･ At typical nucleon separation (1.3 fm) it is a

very strong attractive force.

･ At much smaller separations between nucleons

the force is very powerfully repulsive, which keeps
the nucleons at a certain average separation.

･ Beyond about 1.3 fm separation, the force

exponentially dies off to zero. It is greater than the
Coulomb force until about 2.5 fm

･ The NN force is nearly independent of whether the

nucleons are neutrons or protons. This property is
called charge independence or isospin independence.

･ The NN force depends on whether the spins of the nucleons

are parallel or antiparallel.

･ The NN force has a noncentral or tensor component.

Since the nucleons are fermions they obey
FD statistics

n = 0.17 fm-3

⇒
per nucleon
 Nuclear density is
a constant.

Deformation is an
indication of nuclear
rotation

R ∝ A1/ 3
nuclear force is
spin dependent
Nuclear binding energy is the (positive)
energy required to disperse a bound nucleus,
A
Z, into N neutrons and Z protons separated
by a large distance.

BE(n) = BE(p) = 0

It is the absolute value of the sum of the

Fermi energies (positive), electrical energy
(positive), and strong attractive potential
energy (negative). A related quantity is the
average binding energy per nucleon

BE/A
 Coulomb Energy
• The nucleus is electrically charged with total charge Ze
• Assume that the charge distribution is spherical and compute
the reduction in binding energy due to the Coulomb interaction

Ze
Q(r )
ECoulomb = ∫
0
4πε 0 r
dQ Q(r ) = Ze(r / R)3 dQ = 3Zer 2 / R 3dr
to change the integral to dr ; R=outer radius of nucleus
R
3( Ze) 2 r 5 ( Ze) 2 includes self interaction of last
ECoulomb =∫ dr = (3 / 5) proton with itself. To correct this
0
4 πε 0 r R 6
4πε 0 R
replace Z2 with Z*(Z-1)
… and remember R=R0A-1/3
Z *( Z −1)
BCoulomb ( Z , A) = −d
A1/ 3
 Mirror Nuclei
• Compare binding energies of mirror nuclei (nuclei with np). Eg
3Li and 4Be.
7 7

• If the assumption of isospin independence holds the mass difference

should be due to n/p mass difference and Coulomb energy alone.
• From the previous page

3 e2 3 e2
ΔEcoulomb ( Z , Z −1) = [ Z ( Z −1) −( Z −1)( Z −2)] = 2( Z −1)
5 4πε 0 R 5 4πε 0 R
Z ~ A / 2 ; R = R0 A1/ 3 to find that ΔEC ( Z , Z −1) ∝ A2 / 3
• Now lets measure mirror nuclei masses, assume that the model holds
and derive ECoulomb from the measurement.
• This should show an A2/3 dependence
 “Charge
symmetry”

nn and pp
interaction same
(apart from ΔECoul ∝ A 2/3
Coulomb)
 More charge symmetry
Energy Levels of two mirror nuclei for a number of excited
states. Corrected for n/p mass difference and Coulomb Energy

Ecorrected

42
 Semi-Empirical Mass Formulae
• A phenomenological understanding of nuclear
binding energies as function of A, Z and N.
• Assumptions:
– Nuclear density is constant.
– We can model effect of short range attraction due to strong
interaction by a liquid drop model.
– Coulomb corrections can be computed using electro
magnetism (even at these small scales)
– Nucleons are fermions at T=0 in separate wells (Fermi gas
model  asymmetry term)
– QM holds at these small scales  pairing term
– Nuclear force does not depend on isospin
 Liquid Drop Model
• Phenomenological model to understand binding energies.
• Consider a liquid drop
– Ignore gravity and assume no rotation
– Intermolecular force repulsive at short distances, attractive at intermediate
distances and negligible at large distances  constant density.
– n=number of molecules, T=surface tension, BE=binding energy
E=total energy of the drop, ,=free constants
E=-n + 4R2T  BE=n-n2/3

surface area ~ n2/3

• Analogy with nucleus
– Nucleus has constant density
– From nucleon-nucleon scattering experiments we know:
• Nuclear force has short range repulsion and is attractive at intermediate distances.
– Assume charge independence of nuclear force, neutrons and protons have
same strong interactions check with experiment (Mirror Nuclei!)
 Volume and Surface Term
• If we can apply the liquid drop model to a nucleus
– constant density
– same binding energy for all constituents
• Volume term: BVolume ( A) = + aA a ~ 15 MeV
• Surface term: BSurface ( A) = −bA2 / 3 b ~ 17 MeV

• Since we are building a phenomenological model in which

the coefficients a and b will be determined by a fit to
measured nuclear binding energies we must include any
further terms we may find with the same A dependence
together with the above
There are additional important correction terms to the
volume and surface area terms, notably the Coulomb
repulsion that makes the nucleus less bound, and the
symmetry energy, which is a purely quantum mechanical
correction due to the exclusion principle.
 Asymmetry Term
• Neutrons and protons are spin ½ fermions  obey Pauli
exclusion principle.
• If all other factors were equal nuclear ground state would have
equal numbers of n & p.

neutrons protons Illustration

• n and p states with same spacing .
• Crosses represent initially occupied states in ground
state.
• If three protons were turned into neutrons
• the extra energy required would be 3×3 .
• In general if there are Z-N excess protons over
neutrons the extra energy is ((Z-N)/2)2 . relative to
Z=N.
correction
 A
Z '= (1 −λ )
2
A
N ' = (1 + λ )
2

n( n −1)
(1+ λ ) n ≈1+ nλ + λ 2 +...
2!

N ' −Z '
λ=
A
The proportionality constant is about 28 MeV
So far we have

2
( N −Z ) Z2
BE = a A − b A2/3 −c − d 1/3
A A
purely quantum mechanical
corrections to the liquid
drop model

Adding a nucleon increases

the nuclear binding energy
of the nucleus (no direct
analogue to atomic physics).
If this is nucleon is added
to a lower energy state,
more binding is obtained.
A low state might be one
where there is already an
unpaired nucleon.
 Pairing Term
Neutron separation energy
[MeV] in Ba isotopes

• Nuclei with even number of n or 56+N

Ba
56
even number of p more tightly
bound then with odd numbers.

• Only 4 stable o-o nuclei but 153

stable e-e nuclei.

Neutron number
 Pairing Term
• Phenomenological fit

δ
BPairing ( A) = − 1/ 2
A
 Note: If you want to plot binding
energies versus A it is often best to
use odd A only as for these the
e-e + pairing term does not appear
e-o 0
o-o -
Putting it all together:

Pairing increases the

binding energy of nuclei
with even numbers of
neutrons and/or protons
Experiment

Liquid drop

Evans 3.5
Semi Empirical Mass Formula
Binding Energy vs. A for beta-stable odd-A nuclei

Fit parameters in
Iron MeV
a 15.56
Not smooth because Z b 17.23
not smooth function of A
c 23.285
d 0.697
 +12 (o-o)
 0 (o-e)
 -12 (e-e)
 Utility

• Only makes sense for A greater than about 20

• Good fit for large A (<1% in most instances)
• Deviations are interesting - shell effects
• Explains the “valley of beta-stability” (TBD)
• Explains energetics of nuclear reactions
• Incomplete consideration of QM effects (energy levels
not all equally spaced)
http://128.95.95.61/~intuser/ld3.html

Given A, what is the

most tightly bound Z?

N = A-Z
N-Z = A-2Z

Only the Coulomb and

pairing terms contained Z
explicitly
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxa3 A2/ 3 << 4 a4
xxxx sym m etrydom inates

A Zs
20 9.6
40 18.6
60 27.3
 ( N −Z )stable = ( A −2 Z )stable
⎛ 4 a4 ⎞
= A ⎜1 − ⎟
⎝ a3 A2/3 + 4 a4 ⎠
⎛ a3 A2/3 ⎞
= A⎜ 2/3 ⎟
⎝ a3 A + 4 a4 ⎠
a3 5/3
≈ A = 0.0064 A5/3
4 a4

a3 = 0.717 a4 = 28.1

Evans 3.4