NUCLEAR AND ELEMENTARY

PARTICLE PHYSICS
Course 2014-2015

University of Bucharest
Faculty of Physics
 I. Interaction properties

Content
Time dependent perturbation method to study interactions properties
Alpha decay process (time dependent perturbation method applied to nuclear interactions)
Beta- decay: the weak interaction at work
Gamma decay: the electromagnetic interaction case

These lectures are parts adapted from the book:

K Heyde, Basic Ideas and Concepts in Nuclear Physics (An Introduction approach) (Graduate student series in
physics, Series Editor: Douglas F Brewer), IOP Publishing Ltd, Second edition 1999
(Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6)
.
Applications for the fundamental interactions

1. Nuclear decays
1.a) Nuclear interaction – alpha decays
where

Following the general methods, we should finally solve the corresponding time-independent problem
for the equation:
This result put in evidence the decrease of the probability of the process as a time dependent
consequence and this it is possible due to of the extension of the concept of energy. E is extended with
an imaginary part ( . A complex energy variable is in fact a generalization of the concept
of energy, because the imaginary part is associated with lifetime of the state with corresponding
energy.

Various approximation methods used to describe decay probabilities for α-decay:

From ( a ) to (c) the approximation to the potential describing the tunneling simplifies the problem
considerably from a realistic calculation ( a ) into the quantum mechanical tunneling calculation
through to a simple square potential ( c ) .Wave functions (stationary solutions) are depicted in each
case.

Potential model (schematic) used to study a-decay transition probabilities in a stationary description.
The description in part ( I ) allows for quasi-bound states tunneling through the rectangular potential
well (II) into the external region (III). The stationary energy corresponds to the eigenvalue E.

The potential with which we solve the a-decay problem is given in figure

where in region (I) stationary solutions describe the a-particle in the nucleus where the lifetime of the
level in realistic cases is very long compared to the time that is typical of nucleon frequencies.
In the external region, the α-particle can be considered as a free particle (region III).

At the point x=O, the barrier goes to infinity, so, solutions in this interval, region (I), become

where we have
and the differential equation in region (I), (III) reads

solutions in regions (II) and (III) become:

Continuity conditions at the points a and b give for a

In almost all cases, is much larger than . We are now interested in those situations where
is as small as possible, i.e. c+=0.

The penetrability is then given by the expression:

 APPLICATION: MODELING POLONIUM-212 ALPHA HALF-
LIFE

[http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/alpdet.html#c1]

A number of parameters must be calculated to model the

barrier penetration which leads to alpha emission by
Polonium-212. The nuclear influence is assumed to stop
sharply when the emitted alpha and the reduced nucleus
are just touching each other. Using the nuclear radius
relationship, this distance is

The height of the barrier at the above distance is

calculated as the Coulomb potential of point charges.
The charge of the remaining nucleus has been reduced
by two by the alpha emission, so that barrier height is:

The distance at which the Coulomb potential drops to the level of energy of the observed
alpha is

So the width of the barrier is

In addition to the tunneling probability calculated below, the alpha emission rate depends
upon how many times an alpha particle with this energy inside the nucleus will hit the walls.
The velocity of the alpha can be calculated from

since an alpha at this energy is nonrelativistic. The frequency of hitting the walls is then

Just for comparison purposes, the expected half-life for a single rectangular barrier equal to
the peak of the barrier in height will be calculated. The tunneling probability for a rectangular
barrier of height 26.2 MeV and width 17.9 fm is

For a given alpha, the probability per second for emission is the product

which may be used in the nuclear decay relationship to obtain the half-life

Obviously this is not a good approximation - it misses by 13 orders of magnitude!!

 A better tunneling probability should be obtained by
breaking the barrier into five segments and multiplying
the successive tunneling probabilities. The following
table was constructed by dividing the 17.9 fm width into
five equal segments with height equal to the midpoint
height of the segment.

Probability
Segment height
of tunneling
21.9 1.20 x10^-5
16.4 1.74 x 10^-4
13.2 1.43 x 10^-3
11.0 .98 x 10^-2
9.4 .85 x 10^-1
Product of
2.47 x 10^-15
probabilities

For a given alpha, the combined tunneling probability per second for emission is the product

which gives half-life

So the model gives a halflife of 0.25 microseconds compared to the experimental halflife of
0.3 microseconds. Not bad! But it must be admitted that this is a fortuitous example. Not all
of them agree this well with just a five segment barrier approximation.

1.b) Beta- decay: the weak interaction at work

Energy relations and Q-values in beta-decay

(i) The value for the transmutation is

To convert the nuclear masses into atomic masses, is used the expression

where the Bi represents the binding energy of the i-th electron. So, one obtains for the Qβ- value the
result (neglecting the very small differences in electron binding energy between the daughter and
parent atoms). Similar equation must be used also for daughter nucleus.

(ii) The Qβ+ value for the transmutation

(iii) A process, rather similar to β+/- decay by which the nuclear charge also decreases by one unit is
called electron capture, can also occur. An atomic electron is ‘captured’ by a proton, thereby
transforming into a bound neutron and emitting a neutrino. This process leaves the final atom in an
excited state, since a vacancy has been created in one of the inner electron shells. It is denoted by

with Bn, the electron binding energy of the n-th electron (n =K, L,….) in the final atom.

Dynamics in beta-decay

Phase space for three body processes

for the process: Parent nucleus → Daughter nucleus +e-/++ (anti ν)/ν;

In this case this wave function is

and the final state is a product between the wave functions for every component:

the wave function for electron/positron is a Coulomb function emitted from nucleus. In this case the
wave function is nonrelativistic.

The antineutrino function is given by a plane wave.

The interaction (characterized by the interaction vertex) is:

with strength g. The use of delta function suggests the localized (point) character of the interaction.

Thus:

In the beta decay process an electron, an antineutrino and recoiling nucleus contain the full kinematics.
Thus the conservation laws for momentum and energy applied to this decay are (decay at rest):
we need to specify the specific process we are interested in. If we evaluate the density of states for
electrons emitted with an energy in an infinitesimal interval, independent of neutrino variables, energy
for electron is constant and the variation does not affect the electron observables.

The quantized volume of the normalized box will cancel in the electron and neutrino wavefunctions
that appear in the matrix element

For the explicit form of the matrix element a particular model for process must be considered. This
topic is beyond the general course in nuclear physics.

The neutrino wavefunction is written as

For the electron, a pure plane wave approximation is too crude and one has to take into account the
distortion of the electron wavefunction caused by interaction with the electrostatic field of the nucleus.
Quantitatively, the main effect is to alter the magnitude of the electron wave function at the origin
such that

with:

Combining all of the above contributions, the partial decay probability becomes:

These results could be used by experimentalists to extract physical aspects that permit to
understanding the internal mechanisms for beta decay. If we consider unitary value for matrix element,
these equations refer only to the statistical aspects of the beta decay. Deviations from this behavior
represent of the experimental indications for possible internal processes which must be modeled in the
frame of particular hypotheses.

1.c) Gamma decay: the electromagnetic interaction case

The classical theory of radiation: a summary

Before describing the quantized radiation process, in which the nucleus de-excites from an initial
configuration to a lower excited state or to the ground state, we briefly recall the basic results obtained
by solving Maxwell's equations for the free radiation field.
For this we shall start from the electric field configuration generated by an electric dipole (with dipole
moment n). The electric field configuration surrounding a dipole, derived from the potential, is:
The electric field components are:
 2. Nuclear Reactions

These lectures are parts adapted from:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Nuclear-Engineering/22-101Fall-2006/LectureNotes/index.htm
Niels Walet, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Version 00.1, February 3, 2003, UMIST, Manchester, U.K,
http://walet.phy.umist.ac.uk/P615/Notes.pdf

Among the many models of nuclear reactions there are two opposing basic models which we have
encountered.
These are
i) the compound nucleus model proposed by Bohr (1936) in which the incident particle
interacts strongly with the entire target nucleus, and the decay of the resulting compound nucleus is
independent of the mode of formation,
A well-known example is the liquid drop model;
and
ii) the independent particle model in which the incident particle interacts with the nucleus
through an effective averaged potential. Direct reactions model

Energetic
Before discussing the compound nucleus model we first summarize the energetic of nuclear
reactions.

A generic two-body nuclear reaction is supposed as a process with target nucleus at rest.

By definition,

Q = T3 +T4 – T1

Since Q = T3 +T4 – T1, the reaction can take place only if M3 and M4 emerge with positive kinetic
energies (all kinetic energies are in laboratory system),
This condition, although quite reasonable from an intuitive standpoint, is necessary but not sufficient
for the reaction to occur.
When energetic particles from an accelerator impinge upon matter there is the possibility of a nuclear
reaction. The first such reactions were observed by Rutherford using an alpha particle source. A
product of the alpha particle scattering experiments which led to the nuclear model of the atom was the
transmutation of elements in nuclear reactions such as

+ 14N 17
O+p

This is a quite generally used way of representing a nuclear reaction. The projectile is written first,
then the target nucleus which passes into the daughter nucleus plus emitted particle. A more compact
form which is frequently used is 14N( , p)17O where the projectile and emitted particle are enclosed
in brackets between the target and daughter nuclei. This latter is convenient as the bracketed part can
be used by itself to refer to a particular class of reactions like ( , p) or (n, ).

The bombarding particle is captured by the target nucleus to form an intermediate state - the
compound nucleus.

The subsequent decay of this intermediate state is largely independent of the mode of formation. Thus
a given compound nucleus may be formed by several different reactions but the probability of a
certain type of final state is only dependent upon the amount of excitation energy. The most obvious
evidence for long lived intermediate states in nuclear reactions is the strongly resonant nature of
nuclear cross-sections.

The indium total cross section for neutrons

The energy of these long lived states is defined to a few eV and if we apply the uncertainty relation
dE.dt ~ h we can see that this implies a lifetime of ~ 10-16 s which is very long compared to the time it
takes a nucleon to traverse a nucleus ~ 10-22 s.

The direct process does not involve the formation of an intermediate state and so in this case the
characteristic time of interaction is more like 10-22 s. Also variations in the cross-section as a function
of energy are more likely to be spread over a few MeV.

Compound nucleus
We first note that for a short range or abrupt sided potential there exist quasi-bound or virtual single
particle states which have positive energy. A long range potential like the Coulomb potential has no
such states.

Important: for a short range or abrupt sided potential in nuclear interaction, could exist:
- filled nuclear levels
- excited states (which have negative energies)
- quasi-bound or virtual single particle states which have positive energy.

The positive energy projectile particle is momentarily trapped in one of the single particle
virtual states.

Through collision with nucleons inside the nucleus it shares its energy with them, raising some of
them into excited states and itself dropping into one of these states by virtue of the energy it loses.

This is the formation of the many particle excited state which is the compound nucleus.

At this stage all memory of the original mode of excitation is lost.

At a later time a decay possibility occur when the energy of excitation is once more concentrated in a
single or few particle virtual states.

Write the compound nucleus reaction as

a+X C* Y+b
The produced particles would be with an essentially isotropic distribution in the centre of mass frame.
Supplementary (non examinable)

To do this requires the use of a complex potential in what is called the optical model. This is a
simple model which is used to deal in a general way with scattering processes when absorption is
involved.

Consider a travelling wave moving in a potential V then this plane wave function is written

= exp(ikx)

where
k = {8 2m(E - V)/(h2)}1/2
If the potential V is replaced by V + iW then k also becomes complex and the wave function can be
written

= exp(ik1x)exp(-k2x)

where k = k1 + ik2

This is a travelling wave the amplitude of which is decreasing as it progresses - it is being absorbed.
In most cases V » W and under this assumption we can make an estimate of the mean free path
(1/(2k2)) - that is the distance over which the intensity ( * ) is attenuated by e-1.

2
k = {8 m(E - V - iW)/(h2)}1/2
2
= {8 m(E - V)/(h2)}1/2{1 - iW/(E - V)}1/2
2
~ {8 m(E - V)/(h2)}1/2{1 - iW/(2(E - V))}

replacing the kinetic energy (E - V) by the expression mv2/2 gives

2
k ~ {4 m2v2/(h2)}1/2{1 - iW/(mv2)}

~ {2 mv/(h)}{1 - iW/(mv2)}

~ 2 mv/(h) - i2 W/(hv) = k1 + ik2

The real part of this expression is just 2 / where is the de Broglie wavelength of the incident
particle.

The mean free path (1/(2k2)) can be obtained from the imaginary part as hv/(4 W) or the mean free
time dt ~ h/(4 W). To describe diffraction and scattering phenomena with the optical model requires
an imaginary potential of a few MeV and this is entirely consistent with the lifetime of the virtual
single particle state before absorption of about 10-22 s.

Writing the compound nucleus reaction as

a+X C* Y+b
the cross-section can be expressed as
 ab = a b/

where if the lifetime of the b single particle state is b.

The decay probability is then given by

b = 1/ b = b/

b is the so called partial width and is the total width or times the total decay probability. The
cross-section for the formation of the compound nucleus has just been written as a.

The behaviour of the cross-section with energy depends on the relative sizes of and the spacing
between the energy levels.

For low excitation of a nucleus the energy levels are relatively well spaced and the cross-section
exhibits resonance behaviour while at higher energies of excitation the width will overlap several
energy levels and the cross-section varies much more slowly with energy. This is the so called
continuum region. The energy at which the transition from resonance to continuum behaviour occurs
depends upon A. For A ~ 20 it occurs at about 10 MeV while for A ~ 200 the onset of the continuum
is much lower in energy at about 100 keV.

For the case of well separated levels an individual state will decay as

exp(- t/ ) - remember that is called the total width and is equal to times the total decay
probability. Thus the wave function can be written

= (r)exp(-iE0t/ )exp(- t/(2 )

where the first exponential gives the normal oscillatory time dependence of the wavefunction with E0
as the energy above the ground state. The second exponential gives the decay of the state and the
factor 1/2 in the exponent is to ensure the correct decay of the state which is proportional to | |2.

As the state is decaying it is not a solution of the Schrödinger equation with a static potential - it is not
a so called stationary state but can be considered as a superposition of such states

= A(E)exp(-iEt/ )dE

The function A(E) can be obtained by Fourier transform which yields

|A(E)|2 = | (r)|2/{4 2
((E - E0)2 + 2
/4)}

This means that the cross-section is expected to have the form

a = C/((E - E0)2 + 2
/4)
The similarity between this expression and resonance curves met in other branches of physics (eg ac
electrical circuits) justifies the use of the same terminology here and in particular indicates why is
called the width.

The constant C depends upon the phase space available to the incident particle and the statistical
weight g = (2 + 1), where is the orbital angular momentum of the initial state. We will just quote
the result
 C = h2 ag/(4 p2)
where p is the momentum of the incident particle and a is the partial width for the decay back into
the initial state.

Finally bringing the various factors together the cross-section can be written

2
ab = g a b/{4 ((E - E0)2 + 2
/4)}
where = h/p the de Broglie wavelength of the incoming particle. This is the Breit-Wigner formula
for the single level reaction cross-section.

For example - in the case of elastic scattering ( a = b) at the maximum of the resonance (E = E0) the
cross-section is

2 2 2
el = a (2 + 1)/( )
and if no other processes are possible ( a = ) this further reduces to

2
el = (2 + 1)/
the maximum possible elastic cross-section.
For the inelastic cross-section ( b = - a) at the maximum of the resonance (E = E0) its value is

2 2
inel = a( - a)(2 + 1)/( )

2
This latter has a maximum value of inel = (2 + 1)/(4 ) ie when a = /2.

When the separation of the energy levels is much smaller than the total width then there are many
levels contributing to a given process. This mixture of levels gives a good separation of the decay of
the compound nucleus from the mode of excitation. In this case there is good supporting evidence of
the existence of a compound nucleus independent of the initial state. This is illustrated in the figure
below of the yields of decay products from the compound nucleus 64Zn formed by two different
routes.
Direct reactions - The discovery that processes such as inelastic proton scattering are strongly peaked
in the direction which is forward with respect to the incident particle and further that these processes
exhibit only very gradual changes in cross-section with energy pointed to some other form of reaction
than the compound nucleus.

Single collisions between the incoming particle and a nucleon in the target nucleus in which the
incident particle emerges with reduced energy (inelastic scattering).

a. As in a but with the struck nucleon carrying off most of the energy.
b. The incoming particle does not really enter the nucleus but excites it in passing.
c. A proton enters the nucleus and exchanges charge with one of the neutrons - leaving as a
neutron (charge exchange reactions).
d. The incident nucleon collects a second one from the nucleus to form a deuteron (pick up
reactions eg (n,d))
e. An incident deuteron or other light nucleus leaves one or more of its nucleons in the target
nucleus (stripping reactions).
 3. Interactions from of nuclear structure and nucleon-nucleon
scattering
(Contents)

a. Bound state of the deuteron as neutron-proton system and nuclear forces

b. General features of the nuclear forces

References used for these notes:

Niels Walet, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Version 00.1, 2003, UMIST, Manchester, U.K
http://walet.phy.umist.ac.uk/P615/Notes.pdf

Brian R Martin, Nuclear and Particle Physics – An Introduction, 2nd_Edition, 2009

K Heyde, Basic Ideas and Concepts in Nuclear Physics (An Introduction approach)
(Graduate student series in physics, Series Editor: Douglas F Brewer), IOP Publishing Ltd, Second edition 1999

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/HFrame.html

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Nuclear-Engineering/22-101Fall-2006/LectureNotes/index.htm

Raymond Serway, Clement Moses, Curt Moyer, Modern Physics, Third Edition, Thomson Books/Cole, 2005 (13
Nuclear structure, 14 Nuclear physics applications, 15 Elementary particles; other only by selection)

A Das and T. Ferbel, Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics, World Scientific, Second edition, 2005

a. Bound State of the Deuteron

The deuteron is the only stable bound system of two nucleons – neither the two-neutrons nor the two-
protons are stables.

Experimentally are known the properties of the deuteron.

The deuteron - Properties:

Constituents 1 proton 1 neutron

Mass 2.014732 u

Binding energy 2.224589 +/- 0.000002 MeV

Angular momentum 1ħ

Magnetic moment 0.85741 +/- 0.00002 nuclear magnetons

Electric quadrupole moment +2.88 x 10-3 barn

RMS separation 4.2 fm

1.1 Information about the spin

In analogy with the ground state of the hydrogen atom it is reasonable to assume that the ground state
of the deuteron also has zero orbital angular momentum.
Since the deuteron has spin-1 and is (mostly) in an L = 0 state, the spins of the nucleons must be
aligned, i.e. the total spin,

stot = sn + sp,

must take on the quantum number s = 1. The other possibility is s = 0.

Since the deuteron is the only bound state, we conclude

n p (s = 1) bound n p (s = 0) unbound .

Detailed discussion

There are four ways to couple sn, sp, and l to get a total I of 1.

(a) sn and sp parallel with l = 0

(b) sn and sp antiparallel with l = 1
(c) sn and sp parallel with l = 1
(d) sn and sp parallel with l = 2

Since we know that the parity of the deuteron is even and the parity associated with orbital motion is
determined by (-1)l we are able to rule out some options.

Orbital angular momentum l = 0 and l = 2 give the correct parity determined from experimental
observations.

We conclude that the neutron–proton potential is spin-dependent.

1.2 Electric Multipole Moment and Magnetic Moment

On the assumption of no orbital angular momentum the magnetic moment of the deuteron should just
be the sum of the proton and neutron magnetic moments.

µd = µp + µn= (2.7928 – 1.9130) µN = 0.8798 µN

result which not agree with the measured value quoted above with other deuteron properties and so
throws some doubt on the assumption of no orbital motion.

Neither the proton nor the neutron has an electric quadrupole moment so that the non-zero measured
value for the deuteron quoted above also points to their being some orbital motion present.

The discrepancies in the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments can be overcome if the
ground state is considered to be dominantly of zero orbital angular momentum (L= 0) with a small
admixture of a state with non-zero orbital motion.

The deuteron wave function can therefore be expressed as

d = a0 (L= 0) + a2 (L= 2)=0.96 (L= 0) +0.04 (L= 2)

and the magnetic moment as

µd = a02µ(L= 0) + a22µ(L= 2)

where µ(L= 0) = 0.8798 µN as above and µ(L= 2) = 0.3101 µN.

 Using the observed value µd = 0.8574 µN
and
a02 + a22 = 1

we obtain 2 equations:

a020.8798 µN + a220.3101 µN =0.8574 µN

a02 + a22 = 1

The result in that the ground state of the deuteron (96%) has approximately a 4% admixture of the L=
2 state.
That is, for 4% of the time the orbital angular momentum switches from zero to a value of 2ħ with the
total angular momentum remaining fixed in magnitude and direction at 0ħ.

In order to effect such a switching of the orbital angular momentum the nuclear force must apply a
torque.

Shapes of the deuteron in the laboratory reference frame. Stripes show surfaces of equal density for the M =1 (left) and M =0
J J
(right) magnetic substates of the J =1 ground state. From http://www.phy.anl.gov/theory/movie-run.html.

So, the nucleon-nucleon potential is a function of angle as well as distance.

It has a non-central or tensor component which is normally written

VT(r)[3(S.r)2/r2 - S.S]

The second term is included to make the average over all angles zero.
As shown at the left of the figure above, r is the vector separation of the two nucleons. The figure also
illustrates the two types of non-spherical shape that would be generated by the tensor potential
depending on the sign of VT(r).

The deuteron has the cigar shape shown in the middle which gives a positive electric quadrupole
moment as observed (electric quadrupole moment is +2.88 x 10-3 barn).

1.3 The potential (depth and radius for the bound state)

We can understand how this comes about by considering the 3-dimensional square well potential:

V (r) =−Vo r<R

= 0 r>R
We set B = 0 to prevent ψ from diverging at the origin and D = 0 to make the wave function
normalizable.

Requiring continuity at r = R for the wave u(r) and its derivate u’(r), we find the condition that
determines the allowed values of E:

To go further we can consider only numerical or graphical solutions.

2
Besides the ground state no stable excited states of H have been found; however, there is a virtual
state at ~ 2.30 MeV. [The concept of virtual state will be discussed.]

This can be verified by substituting it into

along with the energy E = −2.225MeV.

Data from neutron–proton scattering discussed shows that the s = 0 states just miss being bound
We can determine both V0 and R:

s = 1 : V0 = 46.7MeV R = 1.73 fm

In previous figure the wavefunction is shown.

The fact that binding energy is small results causes the wavefunction to extend far beyond the
effective range R of the potential and explains the anomalously large value of the deuteron radius.

The maximum of the wavefunction is only just inside the wall, so that there is a considerable
exponential tail which falls outside. This fact explains the relative large value of 4.2 fm for the RMS
(Root Mean Square) separation between the proton and neutron.

The scattering data allow one to estimate the values of V0 and R for s = 0.

One finds for the proton–neutron system

s = 0 : V0 = 12.5MeV R = 2.79 fm .

This potential is quite different from the s = 1 potential.

b. Characteristics of nucleon – nucleon forces

(from different experiments and other considerations)

2.1 What about nucleon – nucleon potential?

 Only proton – neutron potential are bound states.

 What about the neutron–neutron and proton–proton potentials and the fact that there are no
bound states for these two systems?

If the strong interactions do not distinguish between neutrons and protons, the non-existence of a s = 0
neutron–proton state is consistent with the non-existence of the analogous pp and nn states:
n n (s = 0) unbound p p (s = 0) unbound ,

i.e. all nucleon–nucleon states with s = 0, L = 0 are unbound.

On the other hand, the non-existence of pp and nn s = 1, L = 0 states is explained by the Pauli
principle.

This principle requires that the total wavefunction of pairs of identical fermions be antisymmetric.

Loosely speaking, this is equivalent to saying that when two identical fermions are at the same place
(L = 0), their spins must be anti-aligned.

Thus, the L= 0, s = 1 proton – proton and neutron – neutron states are forbidden.
We make the important conclusion that the existence of a ( np) bound state and the non-existence of (
nn) and (pp) bound states is consistent with the strong force not distinguishing between neutrons and
protons but only if the force is spin-dependent.

Comment
The existence of an s = 1 state and non-existence of s = 0 states would naively suggest that the
nucleon–nucleon force is attractive for s = 1 and repulsive for s = 0. This is incorrect. In fact the
nucleon–nucleon force is attractive in both cases.
For s = 1 it is sufficiently attractive to produce a bound state while for s = 0 it is not quite attractive
enough.

The spin dependence of nuclear forces is also evident from the large difference between the neutron
scattering cross-sections of ortho- and para-hydrogen.

At an equivalent energy of 300 K of neutrons scattering, the cross sections are:

σ (ortho)=56×10-24 cm2 per molecule,

σ (para)=29×10-24; cm2 per molecule

and at 120 K
σ(ortho)=79×10-24 cm2 per molecule
σ(para)=18×10-24 cm2 per molecule

We were able to prove conclusively that the energy of the singlet state of the deuteron, in which the
spins of the proton and neutron are antiparallel, is greater than the energy of these particles when far
apart, that is, and the singlet state of the deuteron is virtual.

This is supported by the preponderance among stable nuclei of those with even Z and even N.

N Z Number of Stable Nuclei in Nature

Even Even 156
Even Odd 48
Odd Even 50
Odd Odd 5
 2.2 The symmetry and charge independence of nuclear forces

■From n-n, n-p and p-p scattering experiments and other indirect evidence, it is found that the
nuclear force is independent of the electric charge of the interacting nucleons.

■The charge independence of the nuclear force also means that the main difference between
the n-p and p-p interactions is that the p-p potential energy consists of a superposition of nuclear and
coulomb interactions.

At distances less than 2 fm,: p-p and n-p potential energies are nearly identical, but at distances greater
than this, the p-p potential has a positive energy barrier, with a maximum of about 1MeV at 4 fm.

The charge independence of nuclear forces has led to the treatment of the proton and neutron as two
states of the same particle, the nucleon.

A convenient way of dealing with this formally is to introduce the concept of isospin (also known as
isotopic or isobaric spin) an abstract, extra degree of freedom which is analogous to spin.
From this we can define the third component of the isospin of a nucleus as

I3 = (Z - N)/2.

Comments:
The isospin of the nucleon and the isospin symmetry (charge independence) of nuclear
forces arises from a corresponding symmetry in the quarks from which nucleons are made. The main
fermion (spin 1/2) constituents of the proton and the neutron are the so-called u and d quarks.

These light quarks are equivalent to each other with respect to strong interactions in the same
way that the proton and the neutron are. The strong force which binds the quarks together depends
upon spin but not on isospin.

The u and d have different properties with respect to the electroweak interaction - e.g. their
electric charges are +2/3 and -1/3 respectively.

For example the determination of nuclear sizes from the study of mirror nuclei is based on this charge
independence of the nuclear force.
 2.3 What is the mechanism of interaction?

One model that successfully explains the nuclear force is the exchange force model. According to
this model, two nucleons - a proton and a neutron, for example, produce an attractive force when one
spontaneously emits a particle and the other absorbs that particle.

The exchanged particle exists for such a short time and is confined to such a small region of
space. It is a so-called virtual particle.
A virtual particle cannot be directly detected or measured during the momentum and energy.

Must be mentioned that the same particle can exist as virtual particle (cannot be directly detected or
measured) as produced in a process as exchange particle, but the same particle can exist also as real
particle (and direct observable in experiment), produced in the scattering or decay process.
The Heisenberg principle, (or uncertainty principle),

Et h
2
p x  h
x
2
give the best way to understand these phenomena.

These relationships imply that energy conservation can be violated by an amount E for a short time
interval t and that momentum conservation can be violated by an amount px over a small nuclear
region of size x , in the intervals excluded by Heisenberg relation to simultaneously
measurement. Although it may appear that a virtual particle can never be detected, if an incident
particle strikes the nucleus in just the right way, it can supply the missing momentum and energy
required to make a virtual particle real, thereby permitting the exchanged particle to be measured in
the laboratory.

Since the amount by which energy conservation is violated in the exchange process is Emc2 ,
where m is the mass of the exchanged particle, we have

t  h  h
E mc 2
Realizing that t is the time it takes the exchanged particle to travel a distance d between nucleons,
and that the maximum value of d is d ct for an exchanged particle travelling at the speed of
light, we find that

d ct c h   h
max
mc mc 2

This expression shows that the range of the nuclear force dmaxis inversely proportional to the mass of
the exchanged particle, a general feature of exchange-force models. Finally, because the range of the
nuclear force is approximately 2 fm, we can estimate the rest energy of the exchanged particle that is
responsible for the nuclear force:

mc  hc 1.0510 Js3.010m/s 1.610 J 100MeV

34 8
2 11

d 2.010 m
max
15

2.4 Origin of the Yukawa potential (1935 year)

Hideki-Yukawa (1907-1981) proposed the exchange theory of the nuclear force just described, a
strongly interacting particle with a mass of about 140 MeV/c2, called the pi meson.

Consider a de Broglie wave

Remember that Schrodinger equation is:

or

where
By taking second-order derivatives of de Broglie wave, both in time and in space variables we obtain
the Klein - Gordon equation:

Originally, this equation was found by Schrodinger. He abandoned it because it did not lead to the
correct relativistic corrections for the levels of the hydrogen atom. It was rediscovered later on by
Klein and Gordon.
Forgetting about the exact meaning of ψ in this context is the propagation equation for a relativistic
free particle of mass m. In the case m = 0, i.e., the photon, we recover the propagation equation for the
electromagnetic potentials:

The classical electrostatic potential produced by a point charge is obtained as a static, isotropic, time-
independent solution to this equation with a source term added to represent a point-like charge at the
origin, i.e.,

whose solution is

Similarly, by looking for static, isotropic solutions of the Klein–Gordon equation with a point-like
source at the origin:

one can readily check that the Yukawa potential

satisfies this equation.

The solution

is discarded since it diverges at infinity.

A sketch of the potential is given below.

This is called the Yukawa potential.

2.5 The general features of the nuclear binding force have been revealed in a wide
variety of experiments. We summarize them as follows:

■The attractive nuclear force is a different kind of force from the common forces of
electromagnetism and gravitation, and since it dominates the repulsive Coulomb force between
protons in the nucleus, it is stronger than the electromagnetic force.
■The nuclear force is a short-range force that rapidly falls to zero when the separation
between nucleons exceeds several fermi. Evidence for the limited range of nuclear forces comes from
scattering experiments and from the saturation of nuclear forces already mentioned.

The neutron-proton (n-p) potential energy plot, obtained by scattering neutrons from a target
containing hydrogen, shows the short range of the nuclear force.
(a) Potential energy versus separation for the neutron-proton system.
(b) Potential energy versus separation for the proton-proton system. The difference in the two curves is
due mainly to the Coulomb repulsion in the case of the proton -proton interaction.

The depth of the n-p potential energy is 40 to 50 MeV and contains a strong repulsive component that
prevents the nucleons from approaching much closer than 0.3 - 0.4 fm.

Long range: π+, π -, π0

Intermediate: ρ+, ρ -, ρ0, decay dominantly in the channel: ρ→ π π
Intermediate – short: ω, decay dominantly in the channel: ω→πππ
Short distances - quarks
All particles: ρ, ω,.... are called resonances

- Not all particles experience the nuclear force. This reflects the division of 'matter' into two
classes of fundamental particle, quarks and leptons.

- The quarks are the basic entities from which nuclear matter is created. They are bound together
by the strong force into hadrons like the proton, pion etc. The nuclear force is a 'left over' effect of
this strong interaction - just as the intermolecular van der Waals force is a 'left over' effect of the
electromagnetic interaction. The leptons (electrons, muons, tau particle and their neutrinos) do not
participate in the strong interaction and consequently do not experience the nuclear force.

In spite of the fact that a nucleus is a many body object there is no evidence for many body forces as
such. Nuclear binding can be understood in terms of two body forces and these are studied through the
deuteron system and neutron-proton, proton-proton scattering
So,

Essential Features of Nuclear Forces

In closing we summarize a number of important features of the nucleon-nucleon interaction potential,

several of which are basic to the studies in this class.

1 There is a dominant short-range part, which is central.

2 There is a part whose range is much smaller than the nuclear radius, which tends to make the
nucleus spherical and to pair up nucleons.
3 There is a part whose range is of the order of the nuclear radius, which tends to distort the
nucleus.
4 There is a spin-orbit interaction.
5 There is a spin-spin interaction.
6 The force is charge independent (Coulomb interaction excluded).
7 The force saturates.

All four fundamental forces

We are quite familiar with the classical electromagnetic and gravitational forces. Also we know that
every particle, whether with or without rest mass is subject to gravitational attraction. This aspect, very
important, is in the same time an old observed fact: it is observed the bending of light (as photons in
the particle physics language) in a gravitational field -1919.)
On the other hand, only particles that carry electric charge sense Coulomb field directly.
Both the Coulomb and gravitational forces are long ranged. The photon is the carrier of Coulomb
interaction, and from the fact that the electromagnetic force has infinite
range; we can conclude that the photon must be massless.
The carrier of the gravitational interaction is the conjectured graviton, which is also believed to be
massless. The graviton is predicted by the general theory of gravitation, but their existence (as real
particle is not yet put in evidence directly. Their existence is confirmed only in indirect experiments.

From our discussion of nuclear phenomena, we learned that there are two more forces that have
importance in the subatomic domain. There is the strong force, which, as we have seen, is responsible
for the binding of nucleons inside a nucleus, and the weak force, which appears in processes such as β
decay of nuclei. These forces have no classical analogue and, unlike the electromagnetic and
gravitational forces are exceeding short ranged.
In present, in accord with accepted theories, we can point to four fundamental forces in nature:
1. Gravitation
2. Electromagnetism
3. Weak Force
4. Strong Force

Because in principle all the forces can act at the same time, it could be asked how it is possible to
determine which force contributes in any particular process?
The answer it that the forces can be distinguished through the strengths of their interaction.
We can estimate the relative magnitudes of these four forces in a heuristic way by considering their
effective potentials. Although such potentials are fundamentally non-relativisitic in concept, they
provide a useful guide for rough comparison.

Consider two protons separated by a distance r.

The magnitudes of the Coulomb and of the gravitational potential energies for the two particles are:

where GN is Newton’s constant [ ] and m is the mass of the proton.

It is more instructive to write the potential energies in the Fourier transformed momentum space
where, except for on overall normalization, they take the form
where q refers to the magnitude of the momentum transfer that characterizes the interaction.

The absolute values of the potential energies for both interactions appear to decrease quadratically
with momentum transfer, the ratio between the two potentials is in fact independent of momentum
scale and it is possible to evaluate the ratio

For simplicity I consider the value for the mass of the proton and used for the
electromagnetic fine-structure constant.
This ratio put in evidence the fact that for charged particles, the gravitational force is inherently much
weaker than the electromagnetic force.

The strong and the weak forces are short ranged and they can be described phenomenologically using
Yukawa potentials in the form:

where the coupling constants (using analogies) could be interpreted as effective charges for the strong
and the weak interactions, and mπ and mW/Z represent the masses of the force-mediating (or exchanged)
particles in the two cases. Using the same procedure as above, we can transform the potentials to
momentum space, and, except for an overall normalization constant, obtain

These values of the coupling constants can be estimated from experiment; they are approximately

and for the masses the following values could be considered: ,

and

Consequently, we can compare the magnitude of the Coulomb potential energy to that for the strong
and the strong and weak interactions. There appears to be an explicit dependence on momentum scale
in the ratio. In this particular case considered here, interaction between two protons, it is natural to
choose the momentum scale to correspond to that the proton mass. Thus, choosing
q2c2=m2c4=(1GeV)2 , we obtain

These results shown that the strong force is stronger than the electromagnetic force which in turn is
stronger than the weak force, and thus the gravitational force is the weakest of all the forces.
For larger momentum scales of order of magnitude – the mass of weak propagator, the weak and
electromagnetic energies and strengths become more comparable, and suggest the interesting
possibility for a unification of the two forces at very high energies. These estimations are only
qualitatively.

The differences in the forces also manifest itself in the interaction time characterising a particular
process.

From forces to interactions

In quantum field theory, forces between particles are described by the exchange of virtual particles.

In physics a virtual particle is a transient fluctuation that exhibits many of the characteristics of an
ordinary particle, but that exists for a limited time. The concept of virtual particles arises in
perturbation theory of quantum field theory where interactions between ordinary particles are
described in terms of exchanges of virtual particles.
Virtual particles do not necessarily carry the same mass as the corresponding real particle, and they do
not always have to conserve energy and momentum, since, being short-lived and transient, their
existence is subject to the uncertainty principle.

Virtual particles are also excitations of the underlying fields, but are "temporary" in the sense that they
appear in calculations of interactions, but never as asymptotic states or indices to the scattering matrix.

Important, antiparticles should not be confused with virtual particles or virtual antiparticles.

The exchange of massive particles leads to Yukawa like potentials (pions).

These diagrams contribute to the nucleon–nucleon potential and lead to the binding of nucleons and to
nucleon–nucleon scattering.

In quantum electrodynamics, the exchange of massless photons leads to the Coulomb potential.

The diagram with Z exchange (weak interaction) is negligible for the nucleon–nucleon interactions but
dominates for neutrino-neutron scattering since the neutrino has no strong interactions.

In the weak interaction three propagators exists; there are: W+, W- and Z0.
All are bosons.

This particle (Z0) is the mediator of the neutral current sector of the weak interactions.
Compared to pion exchange, the Yukawa potential has a range about 10−3 times smaller.