Study on Nuclear Structure and Decay

Exploring the Relationship Between Nuclear Shells and Decay Processes

Abstract

The study of nuclear properties shows evidence of nuclear shells analogous to those observed in the atoms. One clear piece of evidence in the nuclear case is the sharp discontinuity in nucleon separation energies for certain numbers of N and Z known as magic numbers. In the case of the electronic shells in atoms the picture is very clear, since there is a central Coulomb potential, due to the charge carried by the nucleus and electrons. In the case of the nucleus there is no such external potential but the nucleons move in the potential created by themselves. This potential contains many terms: central, spin-orbit, tensor, spin spin, etcFor nuclei farther from the magic numbers one must add the assumption that due to the relation between the strong nuclear force and angular momentum, protons or neutrons with the same ntend to form pairs of opposite angular momenta. Therefore a nucleus with an even number of protons and an even number of neutrons has 0 spin and positive parity. A nucleus with an even number of protons and an odd number of neutrons (or vice versa) has the parity of the last neutron (or proton), and the spin equal to the total angular momentum of this neutron (or proton).