Nuclear models

The liquid-drop model

The average behaviour of the nuclear binding energy can be understood with the model of a charged liquid drop. In this model, the aggregate of nucleons has the same properties of a liquid drop, such as surface tension, cohesion, and deformation. There is a dominant attractive-binding-energy term proportional to the number of nucleons A. From this must be subtracted a surface-energy term proportional to surface area and a coulombic repulsion energy proportional to the square of the number of protons and inversely proportional to the nuclear radius. Furthermore, there is a symmetry-energy term of quantum-mechanical origin favouring equal numbers of protons and neutrons. Finally, there is a pairing term that gives slight extra binding to nuclei with even numbers of neutrons or protons.

The pairing-energy term accounts for the great rarity of odd–odd nuclei (the terms odd–odd, even–even, even–odd, and odd–even refer to the evenness or oddness of proton number, Z, and neutron number, N, respectively) that are stable against beta decay. The sole examples are deuterium, lithium-6, boron-10, and nitrogen-14. A few other odd–odd nuclei, such as potassium-40, occur in nature, but they are unstable with respect to beta decay. Furthermore, the pairing-energy term makes for the larger number of stable isotopes of even-Z elements, compared to odd-Z, and for the lack of stable isotopes altogether in element 43, technetium, and element 61, promethium.

The beta-decay energies of so-called mirror nuclei afford one means of estimating nuclear sizes. For example, the neon and fluorine nuclei, 19/10Ne9 and 19/9F10, are mirror nuclei because the proton and neutron numbers of one of them equal the respective neutron and proton numbers of the other. Thus, all binding-energy terms are the same in each except for the coulombic term, which is inversely proportional to the nuclear radius. Such calculations along with more direct determinations by high-energy electron scattering and energy measurements of X-rays from muonic atoms (hydrogen atoms in which the electrons are replaced by negative muons) establish the nuclear charge as roughly uniformly distributed in a sphere of radius 1.2 A1⁄3 × 10−13 centimetre. That the radius is proportional to the cube root of the mass number has the great significance that the average density of all nuclei is nearly constant.

Careful examination of nuclear-binding energies reveals periodic deviations from the smooth average behaviour of the charged-liquid-drop model. An extra binding energy arises in the neighbourhood of certain numbers of neutrons or protons, the so-called magic numbers (2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126). Nuclei such as 4/2He2, 16/8O8, 40/20Ca20, 48/20Ca28, and 208/82Pb126 are especially stable species, doubly magic, in view of their having both proton and neutron numbers magic. These doubly magic nuclei are situated at the intersections of grid lines on Figure 2 above.

The shell model

In the preceding section, the overall trends of nuclear binding energies were described in terms of a charged-liquid-drop model. Yet there were noted periodic binding-energy irregularities at the magic numbers. The periodic occurrence of magic numbers of extra stability is strongly analogous to the extra electronic stabilities occurring at the atomic numbers of the noble-gas atoms. The explanations of these stabilities are quite analogous in atomic and nuclear cases as arising from filling of particles into quantized orbitals of motion. The completion of filling of a shell of orbitals is accompanied by an extra stability. The nuclear model accounting for the magic numbers is, as previously noted, the shell model. In its simplest form, this model can account for the occurrence of spin zero for all even–even nuclear ground states; the nucleons fill pairwise into orbitals with angular momenta canceling. The shell model also readily accounts for the observed nuclear spins of the odd-mass nuclei adjacent to doubly magic nuclei, such as 208/82Pb. Here, the spins of 1/2 for neighbouring 207/81Tl and 207/82Pb are accounted for by having all nucleons fill pairwise into the lowest energy orbits and putting the odd nucleon into the last available orbital before reaching the doubly magic configuration (the Pauli exclusion principle dictates that no more than two nucleons may occupy a given orbital, and their spins must be oppositely directed); calculations show the last available orbitals below lead-208 to have angular momentum 1/2. Likewise, the spins of 9/2 for 209/82Pb and 209/83Bi are understandable because spin-9/2 orbitals are the next available orbitals beyond doubly magic lead-208. Even the associated magnetization, as expressed by the magnetic dipole moment, is rather well explained by the simple spherical-shell model.

The orbitals of the spherical-shell model are labeled in a notation close to that for electronic orbitals in atoms. The orbital configuration of calcium-40 has protons and neutrons filling the following orbitals: 1s1/2, 1p3/2, 1p1/2, 1d5/2, and 1d3/2. The letter denotes the orbital angular momentum in usual spectroscopic notation, in which the letters s, p, d, f, g, h, i, etc., represent integer values of l running from zero for s (not to be confused with spins) through six for i. The fractional subscript gives the total angular momentum j with values of l + 1/2 and l − 1/2 allowed, as the intrinsic spin of a nucleon is 1/2. The first integer is a radial quantum number taking successive values 1, 2, 3, etc., for successively higher energy values of an orbital of given l and j. Each orbital can accommodate a maximum of 2j + 1 nucleons. The exact order of various orbitals within a shell differs somewhat for neutrons and protons (see table for the orbitals comprising each shell). The parity associated with an orbital is even (+) if l is even (s, d, g, i) and odd (−) if l is odd (p, f, h).

Spherical-shell-model orbitals
shell closure number
2 1s1/2
8 1p3/2, 1p
20 1d5/2, 2s1/2, 1d3/2
28 1f7/2
50 2p3/2, 1f5/2, 2p1/2, 1g9/2
82 1g7/2, 2d5/2, 1h11/2, 2d3/2, 3s1/2
126 2f7/2, 1h9/2, 1i13/2, 3p3/2, 2f5/2, 3p1/2
184 (?) 2g9/2, 1i11/2, 1j15/2, 3d5/2, 2g7/2, 4s1/2, 3d3/2

An example of a spherical-shell-model interpretation is provided by the beta-decay scheme of 2.2-minute thallium-209 shown below, in which spin and parity are given for each state. The ground and lowest excited states of lead-209 are to be associated with occupation by the 127th neutron of the lowest available orbitals above the closed shell of 126. From the last line of the table, it is to be noted

Image showing the beta-decay scheme of 2.2-minute thallium-209.

that there are available g9/2, d5/2, and s1/2 orbitals with which to explain the ground and first two excited states. Low-lying states associated with the i11/2 and j15/2 orbitals are known from nuclear-reaction studies, but they are not populated in the beta decay.

The 2.13-MeV state that receives the primary beta decay is not so simply interpreted as the other states. It is to be associated with the promotion of a neutron from the 3p1/2 orbital below the 126 shell closure. The density (number per MeV) of states increases rapidly above this excitation, and the interpretations become more complex and less certain.

By suitable refinements, the spherical-shell model can be extended further from the doubly magic region. Primarily, it is necessary to drop the approximation that nucleons move independently in orbitals and to invoke a residual force, mainly short-range and attractive, between the nucleons. The spherical-shell model augmented by residual interactions can explain and correlate around the magic regions a large amount of data on binding energies, spins, magnetic moments, and the spectra of excited states.

The collective model

For nuclei more removed from the doubly magic regions, the spherical-shell model encounters difficulty in explaining the large observed electric quadrupole moments indicating cigar-shaped nuclei. For these nuclei a hybrid of liquid-drop and shell models, the collective model, has been proposed. (See the circular regions of Figure 2 for occurrence of cigar-shaped nuclei.)

Nucleons can interact with one another in a collective fashion to deform the nuclear shape to a cigar shape. Such large spheroidal distortions are usual for nuclei far from magic, notably with 150 ≲ A ≲ 190, and 224 ≲ A (the symbol < denotes less than, and ∼ means that the number is approximate). In these deformed regions the collective model prescribes that orbitals be computed in a cigar-shaped potential and that the relatively low-energy rotational excitations of the tumbling motion of the cigar shape be taken into account. The collective model has been highly successful in correlating and predicting nuclear properties in deformed regions. An example of a nuclear rotational band (a series of adjacent states) is provided by the decay of the isomer hafnium-180m, in Figure 3, through a cascade of gamma rays down the ground rotational band (see below Gamma transition for explanation of M2, E1, E2, and E3).

Your preference has been recorded
Check out Britannica's new site for parents!
Subscribe Today!