________________________________________________________________________ 
________________________________________________________________________ 
22.101 Applied Nuclear Physics (Fall 2004) 
Lecture 1 (9/8/04) 
Basic Nuclear Concepts 
References --
P. Marmier and E. Sheldon, Physics of Nuclei and Particles (Academic Press, New York, 
1969), vol. 1. 
General Remarks: 
This subject deals with foundational knowledge for all students in NED. 
Emphasis is on nuclear concepts (as opposed to traditional nuclear physics), especially 
nuclear radiations and their interactions with matter.  We will study different types of 
reactions, single-collision phenomena (cross sections) and leave the effects of many 
collisions to later subjects (22.105 and 22.106).  Quantum mechanics is used at a lower 
level than in 22.51 and 22.106. 
Nomenclature: 
X
A 
 denotes a nuclide, a specific nucleus with Z number of protons (Z = atomic
z 
number) and A number of nucleons (neutrons or protons).  Symbol of nucleus is X.  
There is a one-to-one correspondence between Z and X, thus specifying both is actually 
redundant (but helpful since one may not remember the atomic number of all the 
elements.  The number of neutrons N of this nucleus is A ? Z.  Often it is sufficient to 
specify only X and A, as in U
235
, if the nucleus is a familiar one (uranium is well known 
to have Z=92). Symbol A is called the mass number since knowing the number of 
nucleons one has an approximate idea of what is the mass of the particular nucleus.  
There exist uranium nuclides with different mass numbers, such as U
233
, U
235
, and U
238
; 
nuclides with the same Z but different A are called isotopes. By the same token, nuclides 
with the same A but different Z are called isobars, and nuclides with N but different Z are 
called isotones. Isomers are nuclides with the same Z and A in different excited states. 
We are, in principle, interested in all the elements up to Z = 94 (plutonium).  
There are about 20 more elements which are known, most with very short lifetimes; these 
are of interest mostly to nuclear physicists and chemists, not to nuclear engineers.  While 
each element can have several isotopes of significant abundance, not all the elements are 
1 
of equal interest to us in this class. The number of nuclides we might encounter in our 
studies is probably less than no more than 20. 
A great deal is known about the properties of nuclides.  It should be appreciated 
that the great interest in nuclear structure and reactions is not just for scientific 
knowledge alone, the fact that there are two applications that affects the welfare of our 
society ? nuclear power and nuclear weapons ? has everything to do with it.   
We begin our studies with a review of the most basic physical attributes of nuclides to 
provide motivation and a basis to introduce what we want to accomplish in this course 
(see the Lecture Outline). 
Basic Physical Attributes of Nuclides 
Nuclear Mass 
We adopt the unified scale where the mass of C
12
 is exactly 12. On this scale, one mass 
unit 1 mu (C
12
 = 12) = M(C
12
)/12 = 1.660420 x 10
-24
 gm (= 931.478 Mev), where M(C
12
) 
is actual mass of the nuclide C
12
. Studies of atomic masses by mass spectrograph shows 
that a nuclide has a mass nearly equal to the mass number A times the proton mass.  
Three important rest mass values, in mass and energy units, to keep handy are: 
                                 mu  [M(C
12
) = 12] Mev 
electron 0.000548597 0.511006 
proton 1.0072766 938.256 
neutron 1.0086654 939.550 
Reason we care about the mass is because it is an indication of the stability of the nuclide.  
One can see this from E = Mc
2
. The higher the mass the higher the energy and the less 
stable is the nuclide (think of nuclide being in an excited state). We will see that if a 
nuclide can lower its energy by undergoing distintegration, it will do so ? this is the 
simple explanation of radioactivity.  Notice the proton is lighter than the neutron, which 
suggests that the former is more stable than the latter.  Indeed, if the neutron is not bound 
2 
in a nucleus (that is, it is a free neturon) it will decay into a proton plus an electron (and 
antineutrino) with a half-life of about 13 min. 
Nuclear masses have been determined to quite high accuracy, precision of ~ 1 part in 10
8 
by the methods of mass spectrograph and energy measurements in nuclear reactions.  
Using the mass data alone we can get an idea of the stability of nuclides.  Consider the 
idea of a mass defect by defining the difference between the actual mass of a nuclide and 
its mass number, ? = M ? A , which we call the ?mass decrement?.  If we plot ? versus 
A, we get a curve sketched in Fig. 1. When ? < 0 it means that taking the individual  
Fig. 1.  Variation of mass decrement (M-A) showing that nuclides with mass numbers in 
the range ~ (20-180) should be stable. 
nucleons when they are separated far from each other to make the nucleus in question 
results in a product that is lighter than the sum of the components.  The only way this can 
happen is for energy to be given off during the formation process.  In other words, to 
reach a final state (the nuclide) with smaller mass than the initial state (collection of 
individual nucleons) one must take away some energy (mass).  This also means that the 
final state is more stable than the initial state, since energy must be put back in if one 
wants to reverse the process to go from the nuclide to the individual nucleons.  We 
therefore expect that ? < 0 means the nuclide is stable.  Conversely, when ? > 0 the 
nuclide is unstable.  Our sketch therefore shows that very light elements (A < 20) and 
heavy elements (A > 180) are not stable, and that maximum stability occurs around A ~ 
50. We will return to discuss this behavior in more detail later.  
3 
Nuclear Size 
According to Thomson?s ?electron? model of the nucleus (~ 1900), the size of a nucleus 
should be about 10
-8
 cm.  We now know this is wrong.  The correct nuclear size was 
determined by Rutherford (~ 1911) in his atomic nucleus hypothesis which put the size at 
about 10
-12
 cm. Nuclear radius is not well defined, strictly speaking, because any 
measurement result depends on the phenomenon involved (different experiments give 
different results). On the other hand, all the results agree qualitatively and to some extent 
also quantitatively.  Roughly speaking, we will take the nuclear radius to vary with the 
1/3 power of the mass number R = r
o
A
1/3
, with r
o
 ~ 1.2 ? 1.4 x 10
-13
 cm.  The lower value 
comes from electron scattering which probes the charge distribution of the nucleus, while 
the higher value comes from nuclear scattering which probes the range of nuclear force.  
Since nuclear radii tend to have magnitude of the order 10
-13
 cm, it is conventional to 
adopt a length unit called Fermi (F), F ? 10
-13
 cm. 
Because of particle-wave duality we can associate a wavelength with the momentum of a 
particle. The corresponding wave is called the deBroglie wave.  Before discussing the 
connection between a wave property, the wavelength, and a particle property, the 
momentum, let us first set down the relativistic kinematic relations between mass, 
momentum and energy of a particle with arbitrary velocity.  Consider a particle with rest 
mass m
o
 moving with velocity v. There are two expressions we can write down for the 
total energy E of this particle.  One is the sum of its kinetic energy E
kin
 and its rest mass 
energy, E = m c 
2
,
o o 
)E 
tot 
= E
kin 
+ E = m ( c v 
2 
(1.)
o 
The second equality introduces the relativistic mass m(v) which depends on its velocity, 
2 ?1/ 2 
(1.2)m (v ) =?m , ? = (1? v / c 
2
)
o 
where ?  is the Einstein factor. To understand (1.2) one should look into the Lorentz 
transformation and the special theory of relativity in any text.  Eq.(1.1) is a first-order 
4 
relation for the total energy. Another way to express the total energy is a second-order 
relation 
E 
2 2 2
= c p + E 
2 
(1.3)
o 
where p = m(v)v is the momentum of the particle.  Eqs. (1.1) ? (1.3) are the general 
relations between the total and kinetic energies, mass, and momentum.  We now 
introduce the deBroglie wave by defining its wavelength ?  in terms of the momentum of 
the corresponding particle, 
? = h / p (1.4) 
?
where h is the Planck?s constant ( h / 2? = h = 10 055.1 
27 
erg sec). Two limiting cases x 
are worth noting. 
Non-relativistic regime:  
1/ 2
E
o
 >> E
kin
, p = (2 E m ) , ? = h / 2 E m 
kin 
= h / v m (1.5)
o kin o o 
E 
Extreme relativsitic regime: 

kin 
>> E , p = E
kin 
/ c , ? = hc / E (1.6)

o 
Eq.(1.6) applies as well to photons and neutrinos which have zero rest mass. The 
kinematical relations discussed above are general.  In practice we can safely apply the 
non-relativistic expressions to neutrons, protons, and all nuclides, the reason being their 
rest mass energies are always much greater than any kinetic energies we will encounter.  
The same cannot be said for electrons, since we will be interested in electrons with 
energies in the Mev region. Thus, the two extreme regimes do not apply to electrons, and 
one should use (1.3) for the energy-momentum relation.  Since photons have zero rest 
mass, they are always in the relativistic regime. 
 Nuclear charge 
The charge of a nuclide X
A 
  is positive and equal to Ze, where e is the magnitude of the 
z 
electron charge, e = 4.80298 x 10
-10
 esu (= 1.602189 x 10
-19
 Coulomb).  We consider 
5 
single atoms as exactly neutral, the electron-proton charge difference is < 5 x 10-19 e, 
and the charge of a neutron is < 2 x 10-15 e. 
As to the question of the charge distribution in a nucleus, we can look to high-energy 
electron scattering experiments to get an idea of how nuclear density and charge density 
are distributed across the nucleus. Fig. 2 shows two typical nucleon density distributions 
obtained by high-electron scattering.  One can see two basic components in each 
distribution, a core of constant density and a boundary where the density decreases 
smoothly to zero.  Notice the magnitude of the nuclear density is 10
38
 nucleons per cm
3
, 
whereas the atomic density of solids and liquids is in the range of 10
24
 nuclei per cm
3
. 
What does this say about the packing of nucleons in a nucleus, or the average distance 
between nucleons versus the separation between nuclei?  The shape of the distributions 
Fig. 2. Nucleon density distributions showing nuclei having no sharp boundary. 
shown in Fig. 2 can be fitted to the expression, called the Saxon distribution, 
?
o
?(r) = (1.7)
1 + exp[(r ? R) / a] 
where ?  = 1.65 x 10
38
 nucleons/cm
3
, R ~ 1.07 A
1/3
 F, and a ~ 0.55 F. A sketch of this
o 
distribution, given in Fig. 3, shows clearly the core and boundary components of the 
distribution. 
6 
Fig. 3.  Schematic of the nuclear density distribution, with R being a measure of the 
nuclear radius, and the width of the boundary region being given by 4.4a. 
Detailed studies based on high-energy electron scattering have also rvealed that even the 
proton and the neutron have rather complicated structures.  This is illustrated in Fig. 4. 
Fig. 4.  Charge density distributions of the proton and the neutron showing how each can 
be decomposed into a core and two meson clouds, inner (vector) and outer (scalar).  The 
core has a positive charge of ~0.35e with probable radius 0.2 F.  The vector cloud has a 
radius 0.85 F, with charge .5e and -.5e for the proton and the neutron respectively, 
whereas the scalar clouid has radius 1.4 F and charge .15e for both proton and 
neutron[adopted from Marmier and Sheldon, p. 18].  
We note that mesons are unstable particles of mass between the electron and the proton: 
? -mesons (pions) olay an important role in nuclear forces ( m
? 
270 ~ m ), ?  
e 
mesons(muons) are important in cosmic-ray processes ( m 207 ~ m ).
? e 
7 
Nuclear Spin and Magnetic Moment 
Nuclear angular momentum is often known as nuclear spin hI  ; it is made up of two 
parts, the intrinsic spin of each nucleon and their orbital angular momenta.  We call I the 
spin of the nucleus, which can take on integral or half-integral values.  The following is 
usually accepted as facts.  Neutron and proton both have spin 1/2 (in unit of h ). Nuclei 
with even mass number A have integer or zero spin, while nuclei of odd A have half- 
integer spin. Angular momenta are quantized. 
Associated with the spin is a magnetic moment ? 
I 
, which can take on any value because 
it is not quantized.  The unit of magnetic moment is the magneton 
e 
? ? 
h 
=
?
B 
= 0.505 x 10-23 ergs/gauss (1.8)
n 
2 c m 09. 1836 
p 
where ?
B 
 is the Bohr magneton.  The relation between the nuclear magnetic moment and 
the nuclear spin is 
? =?hI (1.9)
I 
where ?  here is the gyromagnetic ratio (no relation to the Einstein factor in special 
relativity).  Experimentally, spin and magnetic moment are measured by hyperfine 
structure (splitting of atomic lines due to interaction between atomic and nuclear 
magnetic moments), deflations in molecular beam under a magnetic field (Stern- 
Gerlach), and nuclear magnetic resonance 9precession of nuclear spin in combined DC 
and microwave field).  We will say more about nmr later. 
Electric Quadruple Moment 
The electric moments of a nucleus reflect the charge distribution (or shape) of the 
nucleus. This information is important for developing nuclear models.  We consider a 
classical calculation of the energy due to electric quadruple moment.  Suppose the 
8 
nuclear charge has a cylindrical symmetry about an axis along the nuclear spin I, see Fig. 
5. 
Fig. 5.  Geometry for calculating the Coulomb potential energy at the field point S
1
 due 
to a charge distribution ? (r ) on the spheroidal surface as sketched. 
The Coulomb energy at the point S
1
 is 
?
(r )
3
r d ?r V ,( 
1 1 
)

?

= (1.0)
d 
where ?(r )  is the charge density, and d =
 ?
 We will expand this integral in a r r .
1 
power series in 1/ r  by noting the expansion of 1/d in a Legendre polynomial series, 
1 
n 
?
?
?
? 
?
?
?
?
?

1 1 r 
r 
1 
?P (cos )
n 
(1.1)
=

d r 
1 ?

0n = 
where P
0
(x) = 1, P
1
(x) = x, P
2
(x) = (3x
2
 ? 1)/2, ?Then (1.10) can be written as 
?r V ,( 
1 1 
)

?
?
a 
n 
(1.2)=

1 
r 
1 
n = 
n 
0 
r 
1 
9 
3
with a =
? 
r d ?(r ) = Ze  (1.3)
o 
3
a 
1 
=
? 
d rz ?(r ) = electric dipole  (1.14) 
3
1 
2
a 
2 
=
? 
r d (3z 
2 
? r )?(r ) ? 
1 
eQ (1.15)
2 2 
The coefficients in the expansion for the energy, (1.12), are recognized to be the total 
charge, the dipole (here it is equal to zero), the quadruple, etc.  In (1.15) Q is defined to 
be the quadruole moment (in unit of 10
-24
 cm
2
, or barns). Notice that if the charge 
distribution were spherically symmetric, <x2> = <y2> = <z2> = <r2>/3, then Q = 0.  We 
see also, Q > 0, if 3<z
2
> > <r
2
> and  Q <0, if 3<z
2
> < <r
2
> 
The corresponding shape of the nucleus in these two cases would be prolate or oblate 
spheroid, respectively (see Fig. 6). 
Fig. 6.  Prolate and oblate spheroidal shapes of nuclei as indicated by a  positive or 
negative value of the electric quadruple moment Q. 
Some values of the spin and quadruple moments are: 
2
Nucleus  I  Q  [10
-24
 cm ] 
Pu
U
U
n 1/2 
p 1/2 
H
2
 1 
He
4
 0 
Li
6
 1 
233
 5/2
235
 7/2
241
 5/2 
0 
0 
0.00274 
0 
-0.002 
3.4 

4 

4.9 
10