.. _sphx_glr_api_gallery_particle_nuclear:

Nuclear physics
------------------

Rutherford scattering, the neutron and the semi-empirical mass formula,
and the fusion/fission energy release at opposite ends of the
binding-energy curve, from :mod:`physicskit.particle.scattering` and
:mod:`physicskit.particle.nuclear`.


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  <div id='sg-tag-list' class='sphx-glr-tag-list'></div>


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    <div class="sphx-glr-thumbnails">

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    <div class="sphx-glr-thumbcontainer" tooltip="Geiger and Marsden&#x27;s 1909 observation that some alpha particles fired at gold foil bounced back at large angles was inexplicable under Thomson&#x27;s diffuse &quot;plum pudding&quot; atom. Rutherford (1911) showed that treating the alpha particle and nucleus as point charges interacting via the Coulomb force predicts exactly this large-angle scattering, via the differential cross section">

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  .. image:: /api/gallery/particle/nuclear/images/thumb/sphx_glr_plot_01_rutherford_scattering_thumb.png
    :alt:

  :doc:`/api/gallery/particle/nuclear/plot_01_rutherford_scattering`

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      <div class="sphx-glr-thumbnail-title">Rutherford scattering and the discovery of the nucleus</div>
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    <div class="sphx-glr-thumbcontainer" tooltip="Chadwick (1932) replaced the proton-electron nucleus with the modern picture: a nucleus of mass number A and atomic number Z is exactly Z protons and N=A-Z neutrons. Three years later, Weizsacker combined this proton-neutron picture with a liquid-drop model into a single closed-form estimate of nuclear binding energy,">

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  .. image:: /api/gallery/particle/nuclear/images/thumb/sphx_glr_plot_02_neutron_and_semf_thumb.png
    :alt:

  :doc:`/api/gallery/particle/nuclear/plot_02_neutron_and_semf`

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      <div class="sphx-glr-thumbnail-title">Chadwick's neutron and the Weizsacker semi-empirical mass formula</div>
    </div>


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    <div class="sphx-glr-thumbcontainer" tooltip="Cockcroft and Walton (1932) fired accelerated protons at lithium-7 and found it split into two alpha particles, {}^1{\rm H}+{}^7{\rm Li}\to2\,{}^4{\rm He} -- the first nuclear reaction ever induced entirely by artificial acceleration, and the first direct laboratory confirmation of Q=\Delta mc^2. Six years later, Hahn, Strassmann, Meitner, and Frisch found that uranium bombarded by neutrons could split into two much lighter nuclei, releasing roughly 200 MeV -- because the liquid drop&#x27;s Coulomb repulsion overwhelms its surface tension once Z is large enough. This example computes both reactions&#x27; energy release with q_value, and shows they sit at opposite ends of the same binding-energy curve: Cockcroft-Walton fuses light nuclei toward the curve&#x27;s peak, fission splits a heavy nucleus back down toward it.">

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  .. image:: /api/gallery/particle/nuclear/images/thumb/sphx_glr_plot_03_fusion_and_fission_thumb.png
    :alt:

  :doc:`/api/gallery/particle/nuclear/plot_03_fusion_and_fission`

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      <div class="sphx-glr-thumbnail-title">Cockcroft-Walton's disintegration and the discovery of fission</div>
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.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   /api/gallery/particle/nuclear/plot_01_rutherford_scattering
   /api/gallery/particle/nuclear/plot_02_neutron_and_semf
   /api/gallery/particle/nuclear/plot_03_fusion_and_fission