Nuclear Physics

A fission fragment is a term we apply to the "pieces" of an atomic nucleus that appear when a heavy radionuclide fissions. We'd better look a bit more closely to see what's up.

We know that at the extreme upper end of the periodic table appear some really heavy elements. We also know that these heavy elements, regardless of which isotope, are all unstable. That means they will eventually decay by some method. One of the decay schemes that a few radionuclides undergo is called spontaneous fission. Spontaneous fission (which is covered in a separate question) is the natural "splitting" of an atomic nucleus approximately in two. This fission will result in the appearance of two ligher nuclei (along with one or more neutrons). It is the two atomic nuclei that appear as a result of the fission process that we call fission fragments.

The nuclide X would be tritium (hydrogen-3). In the described fusion process, a helium-3 nucleus and tritium combine to form a stable helium-4 nucleus along with the release of an alpha particle (helium-4 nucleus) and a positron.

Neutrinos are not deflected by electric or magnetic fields because they have no electric charge and very weak interactions with matter. These properties allow neutrinos to travel through space without being affected by electromagnetic forces.

Uranium-235 will not beta decay first. If you google "Chart of Nuclides" you can follow the entire decay chain yourself using each isotope's most likely decay type.

Hafnium is used in nuclear reactors as a control rod material to regulate the nuclear fission process. It has a high neutron-capture cross-section, meaning it is effective in absorbing neutrons and controlling the rate of the nuclear reaction. The addition of hafnium control rods helps maintain the reactor at a safe and stable operating condition.

A microgram of plutonium emits approximately 2.2 million alpha particles per second. Over a year, this would amount to around 69 trillion alpha particles. Alpha particles are high-energy and can be harmful if ingested or inhaled, increasing the risk of cancer and other health issues.

The atomic nucleus with the highest charge density on Earth is the uranium-238 nucleus. Its high positive charge is concentrated in a relatively small volume, leading to a very high charge density compared to other nuclei.

subatomic particles :)

Yes, the protons help hold an atomic nucleus together. Let's look at things and figure this one out. Protons are positively charged, as you know, and like charges repel. That's basic electrostatics. The Coulomb forces of the protons push them away from each other. Further, when protons are packed into an atomic nucleus, they're still pushing away from each other. Let's consider what happens when an atomic nucleus forms. The term nucleon is how we refer to protons and neutrons when they are used as building blocks of an atomic nucleus. And the nucleons all undergo what is called mass deficit when that atomic nucleus if forced together in nuclear fusion. All the nucleons lose some mass during the fusion process, and this mass is converted into nuclear binding energy. The nuclear binding energy is also called nuclear glue, or residual strong interaction (residual strong force). And it is this force that overcomes the repulsive force of the protons, and it keeps the nucleus together. It turns out that both the protons and neutrons are involved in the "magic" that holds the nucleus together, as we've seen. Certainly the protons cannot do it by themselves, and the neutrons are necessary. But the protons have to give up some mass as well so that residual strong force can appear and mediate the fusion process that holds the nucleus together. It's really that simple.

The neutron has a spin of 1/2, which means it behaves like a tiny magnet with two possible orientations. This property is fundamental to understanding its interactions with magnetic fields and its role in particle physics.

There are two beta decay schemes. Beta- involves changing a neutron into a proton and emitting an electron and an electron antineutrino. Beta+ involves changing a proton into a neutron and emitting a positron and an electron neutrino. There are other steps and factors involved, but that is the simple explanation.

Chemical reactions involve changes in the electron configuration of atoms, not the nuclei. In contrast, nuclear reactions alter the nuclei of atoms by changing the number of protons, which can result in the transformation of one element into another. Chemical reactions do not have the ability to change the identity of elements based on the number of protons in the nucleus.

Cosmological redshift -- on a large scale, everything in the universe appears to be moving apart. If you extrapolate backward, then it seems that about 14 billion years ago everything would have been in the same place. Since that's not the case now, something must have happened. Microwave background radiation -- in every direction we look there is a remarkably uniform amount of microwave radiation. It looks very much like what we'd expect to see if the entire universe were filled with a very hot plasma 14 billion years ago which has since expanded and cooled. Elemental abundance -- the proportions of various elements that we actually detect agree well with what would be expected if the Big Bang theory is correct.

The number of control rods in a nuclear reactor can vary depending on the design and size of the reactor. Typically, a nuclear reactor can have anywhere from 50 to 100 control rods. These rods are used to control the rate of the nuclear reaction by absorbing neutrons and regulating the power output of the reactor.

Nobody is really quite sure yet. The existence of the Higgs boson is predicted by the Standard Model of quantum mechanics, but nobody has yet been able to experimentally detect one, so a lot of the details of it are still unknown.

The Standard Model does not predict what mass the Higgs boson would have, so it could be anything, really, though it's generally assumed that its mass is somewhere between 115 and 180 GeV/c2, because if it is that will make all the equations we have work properly for pretty much all cases. It is possible, however, that we'll find out that it isn't in this range (or we may not ever be able to find one at all), in which case people may have to make some changes to our current theories to account for why it's different than we expected.

that studies the atomic nucleus, including its structure, behavior, and interactions. It explores the forces that hold the nucleus together and the transformations that occur within it, such as nuclear fusion and fission. Nuclear physics has applications in energy production, medical imaging, and understanding the fundamental building blocks of matter.

The SI unit of conductance is the siemens (S), named after the German inventor and scientist Werner von Siemens. Conductance is the reciprocal of resistance and is a measure of how easily an electrical current can flow through a material.

Plutonium-239 is a radioactive particle that is harmful to human beings due to its high toxicity and ability to emit high-energy alpha particles, which can damage cells and cause long-term health effects such as cancer and organ failure if ingested or inhaled.

The decay processes for 218Po to decay into 214Po involve alpha decay. In alpha decay, 218Po emits an alpha particle (Helium-4 nucleus) to become 214Po. Similarly, for 214Po to decay into 210Po, alpha decay also occurs where 214Po emits an alpha particle to transform into 210Po.

During fission, a small amount of mass is changed into energy according to Einstein's equation E=mc^2. This means that a small portion of the mass of the fissionable material is converted into a significant amount of energy.

A particle accelerator used to accelerate particles at high speeds will not fuse together and create a new element. The particle accelerator uses electromagnetic fields to move charged particles and contain them in well defined beams.

Usually a small subatomic particle such as a neutron, since it does not contain any charge and thus is not repelled by the positively charged nucleus, and it is massive enough to give enough energy to split the uranium nucleus.

The half-life of carbon-14 is approximately 5,730 years. This means that it takes 5,730 years for half of the carbon-14 in a sample to decay into nitrogen-14.