Atomic and Nuclear Physics | Definition & Applications

Nuclear Physics

What is nuclear physics?

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the constituents of matter (protons and neutrons) and interactions between them. Modern nuclear physics contains especially particle physics, which is taught in close association with nuclear physics.

Key Facts

The physical world is composed of combinations of various subatomic or fundamental particles. These are the smallest building blocks of matter.
Fundamental particles and interactions are summarized in a theoretical model called the Standard Model.
The atoms consist of two parts. An atomic nucleus and an electron cloud.
The nuclear properties (atomic mass, nuclear cross-sections) of the element are determined by the number of protons (atomic number) and number of neutrons (neutron number).
Nuclear stability is a concept that helps to identify the stability of an isotope. To identify the stability of an isotope it is needed to find the ratio of neutrons to protons. To determine the stability of an isotope you can use the ratio neutron/proton (N/Z).
Nuclear decay (radioactive decay) occurs when an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing radiation.
Each type particle interacts in a different way, therefore we must describe interaction of particles (radiation as a flow of these particles) separately.
A nuclear reaction is considered to be the process in which two nuclear particles (two nuclei or a nucleus and a nucleon) interact to produce two or more nuclear particles or ˠ-rays (gamma rays).

What is nuclear physics used for?

What is nuclear physics used for?

Knowledge of nuclear physics is essential in many fields in our lives. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation. Modern nuclear physics contains also particle physics, which is taught in close association with nuclear physics. Many of today’s most important advancements in medicine, materials, energy, security, climatology, and dozens of other sciences emanate from the wellspring of basic research and development in nuclear physics.

How hard is nuclear physics?

How hard is nuclear physics?

What kind of human knowledge is hard and what kind is not? Nuclear physics isn’t hard to learn basically. If you want to understand the basic reactions like nuclear fusion and fission it isn’t that hard. Maybe the problem is that, you cannot use most of lessons in everyday life for understanding nuclear physics. Mathematics is and exact physics is better for this purpose. Only this may seem hard.

What are main types of nuclear reactions?

What are main types of nuclear reactions?

Although the number of possible nuclear reactions is enormous, nuclear reactions can be sorted by types:

A knowledge of atomic and nuclear physics is essential to nuclear engineers, who deal with nuclear reactors. It should be noted that atomic and nuclear physics is very extensive branch of science. Nuclear reactor physics belongs to an applied physics. Reactor physics, particle physics or other branches of modern physics have common fundamentals. Atomic and nuclear physics describes fundamental particles (i.e. electrons, protons, neutrons), their structure, properties and behavior.

Atomic and nuclear physics are not the same. The term atomic physics is often associated with nuclear power, due to the synonymous use of atomic and nuclear in standard English. However, physicists distinguish between atomic and nuclear physics. The atomic physics deals with the atom as a system consisting of a nucleus and electrons. The nuclear physics deals with the nucleus as a system consisting of a nucleons (protons and neutrons). Main difference is in the scale. While the term atomic deals with 1Å = 10^-10m, where Å is an ångström (according to Anders Jonas Ångström), the term nuclear deals with 1femtometre = 1fermi = 10^-15m.

Atomic Physics

Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. It is primarily concerned with the arrangement of electrons around the nucleus and the processes by which these arrangements change. This includes ions as well as neutral atoms and, unless otherwise stated, for the purposes of this discussion it should be assumed that the term atom includes ions. Atomic physics also help to understand the physics of molecules, but there is also molecular physics, which describes physical properties of molecules.

Volume of an Atom and Nucleus

The atom consist of a small but massive nucleus surrounded by a cloud of rapidly moving electrons. The nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons. Typical nuclear radii are of the order 10⁻¹⁴ m. Assuming spherical shape, nuclear radii can be calculated according to following formula:

r = r₀ . A^1/3

where r₀ = 1.2 x 10^-15m = 1.2 fm

If we use this approximation, we therefore expect the volume of the nucleus to be of the order of 4/3πr³ or 7,23 ×10⁻⁴⁵m³ for hydrogen nuclei or 1721×10⁻⁴⁵ m³ for ²³⁸U nuclei. These are volumes of nuclei and atomic nuclei (protons and neutrons) contains of about 99.95% of mass of atom.

Is an atom an empty space?

atomic-nucleus-volume-min — A figurative depiction of the helium-4 atom with the electron cloud in shades of gray. Protons and neutrons are most likely found in exactly the same space, at the central point. Source wikipedia.org License CC BY-SA 3.0

The volume of an atom is about 15 orders of magnitude larger than the volume of a nucleus. For uranium atom, the Van der Waals radius is about 186 pm = 1.86 ×10⁻¹⁰ m. The Van der Waals radius, r_w, of an atom is the radius of an imaginary hard sphere representing the distance of closest approach for another atom. Assuming spherical shape, the uranium atom have volume of about 26.9 ×10⁻³⁰ m³. But this “huge” space is occupied primarily by electrons, because the nucleus occupies only about 1721×10⁻⁴⁵ m³ of space. These electrons together weigh only a fraction (let say 0.05%) of entire atom.

It may seem, that the space and in fact the matter is empty, but it is not. Due to the quantum nature of electrons, the electrons are not point particles, they are smeared out over the whole atom. The classical description cannot be used to describe things on the atomic scale. On the atomic scale, physicists have found that quantum mechanics describes things very well on that scale. Particle locations in quantum mechanics are not at an exact position, they are described by a probability density function. Therefore the space in an atom (between electrons and an atomic nucleus) is not empty, but it is filled by a probability density function of electrons (usually known as “electron cloud“).

Nuclear Physics

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the constituents (protons and neutrons) and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation, but the modern nuclear physics contains also particle physics, which is taught in close association with nuclear physics. The nuclear physics has provided application in many fields, including those in nuclear medicine (Positron Emission Tomography, isotopes production, etc.) and magnetic resonance imaging, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archaeology.

Our World

Fundamental Particles

See also: Fundamental Particles

The physical world is composed of combinations of various subatomic or fundamental particles. These are the smallest building blocks of matter. All matter except dark matter is made of molecules, which are themselves made of atoms. The atoms consist of two parts. An atomic nucleus and an electron cloud. The electrons are spinning around the atomic nucleus. The nucleus itself is generally made of protons and neutrons but even these are composite objects. Inside the protons and neutrons, we find the quarks.

Quarks and electrons are some of the elementary particles. A number of fundamental particles have been discovered in various experiments. So many, that researchers had to organize them, just like Mendeleev did with his periodic table. This is summarized in a theoretical model (concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions) called the Standard Model. In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle whose substructure is unknown, thus it is unknown whether it is composed of other particles. Known elementary particles include the fundamental fermions and the fundamental bosons. The fermions are generally "matter particles" and "antimatter particles".

Quarks. The quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the best known and most stable are protons and neutrons
Antiquarks. For every quark there is a corresponding type of antiparticle. The antiquarks have the same mass, mean lifetime, and spin as their respective quarks, but the electric charge and other charges have the opposite sign.
Leptons. The best known of all leptons are the electrons and the neutrinos.
Antileptons. For every lepton there is a corresponding type of antiparticle. The best known of all antileptons are the positrons and the antineutrinos.

The bosons are generally "force particles" that mediate interactions among fermions.

Gauge bosons. The gauge boson is a force carrier of the fundamental interactions of nature.
Higgs boson. The Higgs bosons give other particles mass via the Higgs mechanism. Their existence was confirmed by CERN on 14 March 2013.

However, only a few of these fundamental particles (in fact, some of these are not fundamental particles) are very important in nuclear engineering. Nuclear engineering or theory of nuclear reactors operates with much better known subatomic particles such as:

Electrons. The electrons are negatively charged, almost massless particles that nevertheless account for most of the size of the atom. Electrons were discovered by Sir John Joseph Thomson in 1897. Electrons are located in an electron cloud, which is the area surrounding the nucleus of the atom. The electron is only one member of a class of elementary particles, which forms an atom.
Protons. The protons are positively charged, massive particles that are located inside the atomic nucleus. Protons were discovered by Ernest Rutherford in the year 1919, when he performed his gold foil experiment.
Neutron. Neutrons are located in the nucleus with the protons. Along with protons, they make up almost all of the mass of the atom. Neutrons were discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, when he demonstrated that penetrating radiation incorporated beams of neutral particles.
Photon. A photon is an elementary particle, the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. The photon is the quantum of light (discrete bundle of electromagnetic energy). Photons are always in motion and, in a vacuum, have a constant speed of light to all observers (c = 2.998 x 10⁸ m/s).
Neutrino. A neutrino is an elementary particle, one of particles which make up the universe. Neutrinos are electrically neutral, weakly interacting and therefore able to pass through great distances in matter without being affected by it.
Positron. Positron is an antiparticle of a negative electron. Positrons, also called positive electron, have a positive electric charge and have the same mass and magnitude of charge as the electron. An annihilation occurs, when a low-energy positron collides with a low-energy electron.