NUCLEAR STRUCTURE AND

GENERAL POPERTIES OF NUCLEI

First chapter
Systematic of binding energy
 M
Mass defect

Accurate determination of the atomic

masses shows that these are very close of
whole numbers. Either in 12C or 16O.
Mass defect
The difference between M and A
M M A, Z A
For very light atoms A<20 and for very
heavy atoms A>180 M is slightly
greater than the corresponding mass
number
Between the above values of A , M is
slightly less than the corresponding
mass number.
Packing fraction
Packing fraction f
The mass defect of an atom divided by its
mass number (F . W . Aston)
M
f
M
M A, Z
f 1
A
packing fraction has the same sign of mass
defect
From the figure it is seen that f varies in a
systematic manner with the mass number
A
For very light nuclei and very heavy nuclei f
is positive (20>A>180)
For nuclei with mass numbers between 20
and 180 , f is negative
Binding fraction fB
If the B.E EB of a nucleus divided by the
mass number A , we get the binding energy
per nucleon in the nucleus which is known
as bindingEfraction
ZM fBH NM n M ( A, Z )
fB B

A A

Here we assumed that the masses are

expressed in energy unit so that c 2 has been
omitted. Binding fraction fB of different
nuclei represent relative strength of their
binding
Important points about fB
1. fB For very light nuclei is very small and rises rapidly with
A attaining the a value of 8 MeV/nucleon for A~20, then
it rises slowly with attains 8.7 MeV/nucleon for at A~56
for higher it decreases slowly
2. For 20<A<180 the variation of fB is very slight and it
may be constant in this region having a mean value 8.5
MeV/nucleon
3. For very heavy nuclei A>180 fB decreases monotonically
with the increase of A , for heaviest nuclei fB is about 7.5
MeV/nucleon
4. For very light nuclei there are rapid fluctuations in fB , in
particular for even-even nuclei for which A=4n , n is an
integer. similar but less prominent peaks are observed
at values of Z or N=20,28,50,82,126 magic numbers,
peaks means greater stability
We can write MH=1+fH and Mn=1+fn , where
fH=0.007825 u and fn=0.008665 u

E B Z 1 f H N 1 f n M A, Z
E B Z N Zf H Nf n A1 f
E B A Zf H Nf n A M
where M Af
E B Zf H Nf n M
EB Zf H Nf n M
fB
A A
Zf H Nf n
fB f
A
The first term on the r.h.s of latest eq. is
almost constant specially for lowe A when
Z=N=A/2
So, we can see that binding fraction and
packing fraction are proportional.
 Nuclear size
1. Rutherford`s experiment of -particle
scattering gives us an idea about the smallness
of the nuclear size, he estimated the values of
nuclear radius R for a few light elements ,
these were of the order of a few times 10 -5 m,
2. these values were not very accurate ,in later
years more accurate methods have been
developed
3. We assume that the nucleus has a spherical
shape, this is expected because of the short
range character for nuclear force . However
small departures have been observed , this is
inferred from the existence of electric
quadruple moment of these nuclei which is
zero for spherical nuclei, however it is small.
Nuclear charge
It has been that nuclear charge has been
uniformly distributed, experiments show that
this is very nearly, so the nuclear charge
density c is approximately constant ,
experimental evidences also show that the
distribution of nuclear matter is nearly uniform
, so that the nuclear matter density m is also
approximately constant, since nuclear mass is
almost linearly proportional to the mass
number A, this mean m ~ A/V= constant ,
i.e. , the nuclear volume V=(4/3)R3 A
R A1/3
R=ro A1/3 where ro is a constant known as
nuclear radius parameter
 Nuclear radius R
Radius of the nuclear mass distribution ,
and we can talk about radius of nuclear
charge distribution, since the nuclear
charge parameter Z is almost
proportional to the mass number A an
the nuclear charge density c is
approximately the same throughout
nuclear volume V
Due to the strong interaction the mass
radius and charge radius may be
expected to be very nearly
 Nuclear Spin
Non relativistically moving nucleons have a spin . (i.e.
sp=sn=1/2) in quantum mechanics the spin of p is represented
by a vector operator Sp which have
1 1 the
eigen values of
Sp
2
1
2

And of 2 2
1 1
S Z or
And similarly 2 for S n2.In addition the nucleons may also have
orbital angular momentum by virtue of their motion in the
nucleus this is represented by an angular momentum quantum
number L=0,1,2,..for each nucleon
The sum total of the spin and orbital angular momenta of the
nucleons , the total intrinsic angular momentum of the nucleus
is referred to as the nuclear spin and the associated
quantum number is denoted by J=L+S, odd A nuclei have
J=1/2,3/2,5/2,..and even A nuclei have J=0,1,2..and this
agrees with experimental measurements of nuclear spin , in
addition it is found for even-even nuclei ,the nuclear ground
state spin is always J=0