Particle Physics
ATOMS, NUCLEI AND RADIATION
In 1911 Rutherford and his colleagues fired a beam of alpha particles at
a very thin sheet of gold foil (in region of 10-5 m thick)
They found
- Most of the particles passed through undeflected
- A small number of particles were deflected by more than 100
- About one in ten thousand particles was deflected through an angle
of more than 900
From this they concluded
1. Most of the atom is empty space
2. The positive charge of the atom is concentrated in a very small
region of the atom which must also be very dense as it contains
most of the mass.
The diameter of an atom is about 2 x 10-10 m
The diameter of the nucleus is about 6 x 10 -15 m
An atom consists of 3 particles
- Protons which carry the positive charge and are found in the nucleus
- Neutrons which have no charge and are found in the nucleus
- Electrons which carry the negative charge and which orbit the
nucleus.
An atom is always neutral and has the same number of protons and
electrons
However atoms can have different numbers of neutrons.
The number of protons is known as the protons number and it defines
the element
The number of protons and neutrons is known as the nucleon number
and it can vary
Atoms with the same proton number but different nucleon number are
known as isotopes.
The nucleus of an atom can be shown by the nuclide notation
A
ZX
Where X is the chemical symbol for the element, Z is the proton
number and A is the nucleon number
The nucleus is known as the nuclide
Because the masses are so small the scientists use the atomic mass
unit (u) as a unit for measuring masses of atoms.
One a.m.u. is equal to 1/12 of the mass of a carbon 12 atom.
As a carbon 12 atom has 12 nucleons each nucleon has approximately
the mass of 1 u
One mole of any substance is that amount of substance that has the
same number of particles as 12 g of Carbon 12.
That number of particles is equal to Avogadro's number which is 6 x 10
23
Use the information to find the value of 1 u expressed in kg
One mole of carbon has mass of 12 x 10-3 kg
6 x 10 23 atoms of carbon has mass of 12 x 10 -3 kg
Each atom has mass of 2 x 10 -26 kg
One u has mass of 2 x 10 -26 /12 = 1.66 x 10-27 kg
In any nuclear process nucleon number and charge are conserved
N.B.
RADIOACTIVITY
The nuclei of some isotopes are unstable and they decay
Radioactivity is the energy given off by a nucleus when it spontaneously
decays
The isotopes are said to be radioactive
The nucleus which decays is known as the parent nucleus and the new
nucleus is known as the daughter nucleus.
Proton number, nucleon number and charge are always conserved in
radioactive decay.
Radioactive decay is always spontaneous and random
Spontaneous means that it is independent of all external conditions
and you cannot stop it, start it, speed it up or slow it down.
Random means it is unpredictable and you cannot predict when the
next nucleus will decay or which nucleus will decay next.
For many years it was thought that the energy could be given off in 3
forms
- Alpha particles
- Beta particles
- Gamma radiation
Alpha decay
Alpha particles – these are identical to the nucleus of a helium atom
(He)
They have 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
Write their nuclide notation and give their charge
4
2He
Charge + 2
An alpha particle can also be written as 4
2 α
During alpha decay the parent nucleus loses 2 protons and 2 neutrons
234
92 U 23090 Po + 42 He
Alpha particles travel at about 107 m/s and are very ionising. They may
produce about 105 ion pairs per cm of air.
They can pass through very thin paper but are stopped by thick paper
and about 5 cm of air.
They can be deflected by magnetic and electric fields.
N.B. alpha particles have discrete energy. This means for any given
radioactive isotope only certain energies of alpha particles are emitted
Beta decay
Beta particles are very fast moving particles
They may be an electron which has a negative charge
They may be a positron which has the same mass as an electron but
has a positive charge
All particles have antiparticles that have the same mass as the particle
but the opposite charge
The positron is the antiparticle of the electron
Often the suffix “anti” is just written before the name of the particle to
denote the antiparticle
There are many other particles
Two of them are neutrinos (ν) and antineutrinos ν
During β - decay an electron antineutrino is also emitted
During β+ decay an electron neutrino is also emitted
During beta decay a neutron in the nucleus decays into a proton and an
electron or a proton decays into a neutron and a positron
The new proton or neutron remains in the nucleus but the electron or
positron is emitted at very high speed.
Beta particles are written as 0-1 e or 0-1 β or 0 1 β or 0-1β
When a beta particle is emitted the neutron number remains the
same.
When an electron is emitted a neutron becomes a proton so the proton
number goes up by one
When a positron is emitted a proton becomes a neutron so the proton
number goes down by one
90
38 Sr 9039 Y + 0-1 e + ν
Beta particles may have speeds up to 99 % the speed of light.
They are not as ionising as alpha particles (half the charge and much
less mass)
They are more penetrating and can travel up to 5 m in air. They are
stopped by about 1 cm aluminium foil.
They are deflected by magnetic and electric fields.
They are deflected in the opposite direction to alpha particles and with
greater deflection.
N.B. Because neutrinos are emitted during beta decay , beta particles t
have a continuous range of energies
Gamma radiation
Gamma radiation is part of the e-m spectrum with wavelengths
between 10-11 and 10-13 m.
It does not change the nucleus and usually follows alpha or beta decay
as the daughter nucleus is in an excited state.
It is written as 00 ϒ
They are not deflected by electric or magnetic fields
