Nuclear Physics: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #438

by Frank Close

Nuclear physics began long before the identification of fundamental particles, with J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron at the end of the 19th century, which implied the existence of a positive charge in the atom to make it neutral. In this Very Short Introduction Frank Close gives an account of how this area of physics has progressed, including the recognition of how heavy nuclei are built up in the cores of stars and in supernovae, the identification of quarks and gluons, and the development of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Exploring key concepts such as the stability of different configurations of protons and neutrons in nuclei, Frank Close shows how nuclear physics brings the physics of the stars to Earth and provides us with important applications, particularly in medicine.

ABOUT THE SERIES:
The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Stem

123 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 2015

About the author

Francis Edwin Close (Arabic: فرانك كلوس)

In addition to his scientific research, he is known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience.

From Oxford he went to Stanford University in California for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1973 he went to the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and then to CERN in Switzerland from 1973–5. He joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire in 1975 as a research physicist and was latterly Head of Theoretical Physics Division from 1991. He headed the communication and public education activities at CERN from 1997 to 2000. From 2001, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham from 1996–2002.

Close lists his recreations as writing, singing, travel, squash and Real tennis, and he is a member of Harwell Squash Club.

Reviews

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book last year, dropped it, then picked it up again as some further reading while attending a course on nuclear and isotope physics. The book starts with some historical background on the discovery of radioactivity and the beginning of nuclear physics. It gives an introduction into theoretical concepts from basic quantum mechanics, the liquid drop model, the magic numbers etc. all the way to quantum chromodynamics. It also talks about applications like dating methods or medical applications. Quite interesting to me was the chapter on the synthesis of the elements: talking about Big Bang, stellar and supernova nucleosynthesis.

„ ‚We are stardust’. Or if you are less romantic, we are made from nuclear waste released by a defunct nuclear fusion reactor. “

[Michael Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are starting off with studying chemistry and/or physics, or you just to want to refresh one or both of these subjects, then definitely pick up this book. Not only are the physics and the chemistry worthwhile to study for their own sake in this book, the nuclear physics you learn here has very important historical implications, like pertaining to the atomic bombing of Japan in World War Two. Isotopes are variations of elemental atoms, in that they share the same number of protons (Z) as other isotopes of that element, but a different number of neutrons (N), which means isotopes of the same element differ in their total number of nucleons (A)—which is just protons and neutrons, and sometimes hyperons which arise whenever an up or down flavor quark in a proton or neutron is switched out with a strange flavor quark. Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium, but is not as radioactive as uranium-235, which when blasted by a neutron, can split and release a lot of energy (this is nuclear fission). It was uranium-235 used in Hiroshima, and though it has a higher chance of undergoing nuclear fission than uranium-238, it has less of a chance of undergoing nuclear fission than plutonium, which was the transuranic element used in Nagasaki—the most Catholic city in all of Japan. In other words, the Americans went the extra mile to ensure the destruction of Nagasaki specifically. If you have ever watched Oppenheimer with Cillian Murphy, then you might have been wondering what they were talking about when they mention the possibility of a chain reaction from dropping the bomb which can engulf the whole Earth, and it has to do with the fact that 1 in 7 isotopes of uranium are uranium-235, which are more likely than uranium-238 to undergo nuclear fission due to principles of binding energy (most atoms and isotopes of those atoms would more likely undergo beta decay or alpha decay to meet the binding energy). A nuclear fission of uranium-235 releases 3 neutrons in the process after the splitting the atom into two other atoms, and these neutrons can then smash into other uranium-235 isotopes, continuing a chain of atomic explosions, but they are more likely to hit uranium-238 which is unlikely to undergo nuclear fission. Both uranium-235 and plutonium are highly radioactive in light of having an odd number of neutrons, which destabilizes the isotopes. As I said before, the way radioactivity usually works is through alpha decay and beta decay (and sometimes gamma radioactivity), and beta decay is how alchemy is literally possible. For instance, if you add (blast) a neutron into the nucleus of certain atoms, they may then undergo beta decay in which they convert a neutron into a proton (which also emits an electron and an antineutrino), which as can be deduced from what I said before about an elemental atom only being of that element in so far that it has the exact number of protons required to be of that element, means that the atom literally changes into an atom of another element; this is not done through magic though, but through pions moving quarks around. What makes a neutron a neutron (which has a neutral electrical charge) is that it consists of these three quarks: two down, one up (2/3-1/3-1/3=0). What makes a proton a proton (which has a positive electrical charge) is that it consists of these three quarks: two up, one down (2/3+2/3-1/3=1). So, we can account for how this happens, as in it is not an effect greater than its cause, but in fact satisfies PSR, even though at first glance it may seem to be violating it as it is going up the periodic table of elements; PSR is satisfied through the pions transferring over the quarks that are necessary for causing this transmutation of elements. Since like repels like, protons electrically repel each other, but what is known as the strong force is what is keeping the nucleus compact, and it works on both the neutrons and the protons (collectively known as nucleons). The strong force works through quantum chromodynamics, which deals with the color charges of quarks (blue, red, and green, which are just arbitrary names for the quarks and not meant to be thought of as how the quarks appear in the color spectrum). As already shown, nucleons are made of three quarks, but they do not merely have an electrical charge, and in fact additionally have a color charge that accounts for the nucleons being pulled together. Red, green, and blue, attract each other, and repel their like. I personally found this to be the coolest part in the book for some reason, I was just really drawn to this idea (though my watching of Young Sheldon may have had some influence on that). Beta decay by the way, works through the weak force, as in the weak force entails the beta decay that has already been described. Alpha decay (and sometimes reverse beta decay in which a positron and neutrino are emitted in the conversion of a proton into a neutron) is how atoms typically go down the periodic table of elements, which very obviously satisfies PSR (like uranium will emit alpha particles in alpha decay start a chain of transmutations from uranium through radon for instance). Alpha particles are doubly ionized nuclei of helium, and they were shot by Rutherford at atoms of gold to study atomic structure and their electrical charges; Enrico Fermi would later figure out that it would be smart to just shoot neutrons as they have a neutral charge and would not deflect from electrical repulsion in the way alpha particles are deflected. Alpha decay happens spontaneously without human intervention (as in the case of of uranium decaying into thorium, which then decays into radium, which in turn decays into radon), but can be induced by it. This book even gets into Big Bang cosmology and how the different atoms would have come about under that model, and specifically spends some time describing how the “carbon barrier” was broken, the very element essential to the physical bodies of living organisms, and how that element was thrown dispersed across the universe by stars (nuclear reactors), meaning that we are made from nuclear waste (stardust). Stars are actually so hot that atoms can’t survive in them, and so plasma arises (really hot gas which consist of protons and electrons being really ionized). The author is reluctant to refer to plasma as another state of matter, but another book I am currently reading about condensed matter physics, states that is certainly a state of matter as the states of matter have to do with how condensed the matter is, which is directly proportional to heat by the way (the colder an atom of an element, the more condensed it is, and the hotter an atom of an element, the less condensed it is). This leads to the possibility that it can be so hot that not even the nuclear particles survive, and so quark-gluon plasma can arise, as is theorized to have happened in the Big Bang when the universe would have been really hot before cooling down; these would basically be free-floating quake color charges. The book also describes the competition between Americans and Soviet scientists to name the elements they were somewhat independently discovering, and how they came to a compromise for what should be the names for many of the transuranic elements. The explanation of practical applications of nuclear physics was also interesting, like the way that positron emission topography (PET) scans rely upon reverse beta decay done by nuclear physicists, as they produce the positrons that doctors then use to elicit a mutual annihilation between matter and antimatter (in this case between an electron and a positron, which is just an electron with a positive charge) that produce the gamma rays they want. Smoke detectors use americium, a transuranic element; americium decays into neptunium by alpha decay, and alpha particles aboard smoke particles really easily, and if alpha particles absorb smoke when going through the ionization chamber in a smoke detector (which is an air-filled space between two electrodes), it reduces the ionization and thus changes the current, which is what triggers the alarm. So, smoke detectors cannot discriminate between a genuine house burning down and someone just cooking, as it does not have the intelligence necessary to make that distinction. Close also explains how under the Big Bang model that he adheres to, the fact that our universe is made of matter and not antimatter or strange matter is just coincidental; he also dismisses the idea that the universe will collapse into strange matter, an idea put forth by some as they think strange matter is more stable than ordinary matter (something Close rejects), which would mean the universe would be striving towards it as it always strives away from instability and towards stability. Strangelets, which are theoretically possible by the Pauli exclusion principle, have not been, to the knowledge of Close by the time he wrote these words, been found, and so this is one reason that Close rejects such a hypothesis. I think the fact that things in the universe strive for stability, is just more evidence of Platonism as it shows that things are basically striving for their Form and away from their deviations against it. There is really so much to cover in this very short introduction, so I really recommend actually reading it to get even more information than what I just laid out.

[Jose Brox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy completo y bien estructurado, a diferencia del libro hermano Particle Physics a very short introduction, del mismo autor, con el que comparte unos cuantos párrafos (creo que el que debería leerse antes es Nuclear Physics). El autor no tiene miedo a entrar en detalle (incluso dedica un apartado al ciclo CNO), aunque lo hace a nivel fundamentalmente cualitativo, y explica unas cuantas ideas interesantes, por ejemplo mediante qué reacciones se forman los elementos en las estrellas y cómo funcionan la resonancia magnética nuclear y la tomografía por emisión de positrones.

(Segunda lectura: me reafirmo en mi comentario anterior, y añado: A pesar de lo árido que puede parecer deducir fenómenos a partir de reacciones, a mí me resulta muy atractivo poder deducir, por ejemplo, qué elementos se forman en las estrellas y cuáles no en función de su temperatura, a partir de una reacción sencilla y un par de ideas sobre estabilidad e inestabilidad de los nucleones en el núcleo. Podría decirse que el decaimiento beta ha determinado toda la historia de nuestro universo y lo hace ser tal y como es a un nivel muy fundamental, el de la construcción de los elementos químicos, sus transformaciones y sus cantidades relativas, además de suponer una de las fuentes principales de emisión de rayos de partículas.)

[Derek Visvanathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having a basic understanding of physics is helpful when reading this book but more than once I found myself yelling "Yes! Science!"

[Christopher Byram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered the Very Short Introductions book series from a video on YouTube, uploaded by the channel Tibees, entitled "Books for Learning Physics". In the video, the narrator, Toby Hendy, a mathematics and physics graduate, is present with a guest, David Gozzard, who also has a background in physics. David mentions the Very Short Introductions book series which gives a (very short) introduction on a wide range of topics, such as business management or Islam, and that for physics, you can get the books in the series that are on physics itself, nuclear physics, particle physics, quantum mechanics and cosmology. He claims that there are over 400 of these books, and they are very small, you can read them in a few hours and pick them up for about $13. The books on physics do not go into the maths behind the physics, but they give you a very brief overview of the concepts and where the science is today. This book series is good to get you started on a subject that you do not have a background in.

[Ezequiel Martínez Vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breve introducción a un campo apasionante. La selección de temas es excelente, aunque creo que algunos capítulos requieren tener muy frescos conceptos de física o química de nivel secundario o universitario inicial. Las incursiones sobre el origen de la materia y los momentos posteriores al Big Bang son particularmente atrapantes.

[Napalmlolita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Missing discussion of 'The Eightfold Path', the original connection between the strong and the weak nuclear force made by that Japanese dude whose name I forgot, and reasons why there are eight gluons instead of nine. In their stead there is too much repetition of things everyone already knows.

[Mykyta Kuzmenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень хорошая книга от сильного автора.

[Shane Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Frank Close. He is the only one I have read that can clearly explain Stellar Nucleosynthesis. Good book!

[Ann Straight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't recommend it to people without a physical science interest. indeed," we are stardust."(quote from Carl Sagan).

[Souvik Khamrui · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read.

[Robert Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good resource for an understanding of nuclear physics love the pocket size ,didn't have enough and leaves you wanting more but indeed it is an introduction.

[Alvaro Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectura muy interesante.

Hay momentos donde es difícil seguirlo debido a la complejidad que alcanzan algunas explicaciones pero realmente curioso cómo se puede obtener, una vez más, tanta información de la simple observación.

Recomendado si tienes un mínimo de conocimiento previo, nada recomendado como introducción a la física sin un trasfondo técnico previo.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I good overview of the field. Helped clarify for me the difference between nuclear and particle physics, particularly as I had read the VSI on the latter by the same author. Only went above my head occasionally. I continue to be impressed by the VSI series. I have quite a few lined up to read.

[Brian Boyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to be conveyed some of the ideas and a better reason to do more maths