In nuclear science, the decay chain refers to a series of radioactive decays of different radioactive decay products as a sequential series of transformations. It is also known as a "radioactive cascade". The typical radioisotope does not decay directly to a stable state, but rather it decays to another radioisotope. Thus there is usually a series of decays until the atom has become a stable isotope, meaning that the nucleus of the atom has reached a stable state.
Decay stages are referred to by their relationship to previous or subsequent stages. A parent isotope is one that undergoes decay to form a daughter isotope. One example of this is uranium (atomic number 92) decaying into thorium (atomic number 90). The daughter isotope may be stable or it may decay to form a daughter isotope of its own. The daughter of a daughter isotope is sometimes called a granddaughter isotope. Note that the parent isotope becomes the daughter isotope, unlike in the case of a biological parent and daughter.
The time it takes for a single parent atom to decay to an atom of its daughter isotope can vary widely, not only between different parent-daughter pairs, but also randomly between identical pairings of parent and daughter isotopes. The decay of each single atom occurs spontaneously, and the decay of an initial population of identical atoms over time t, follows a decaying exponential distribution, e−λt, where λ is called a decay constant. One of the properties of an isotope is its half-life, the time by which half of an initial number of identical parent radioisotopes can be expected statistically to have decayed to their daughters, which is inversely related to λ. Half-lives have been determined in laboratories for many radioisotopes (or radionuclides). These can range from nearly instantaneous (less than 10−21 seconds) to more than 1019 years.
The intermediate stages each emit the same amount of radioactivity as the original radioisotope (i.e. there is a one-to-one relationship between the numbers of decays in successive stages) but each stage releases a different quantity of energy.
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In this course, one acquires an understanding of the basic neutronics interactions occurring in a nuclear fission reactor as well as the conditions for establishing and controlling a nuclear chain rea
Presentation of the electroweak and strong interaction theories that constitute the Standard Model of particle physics. The course also discusses the new theories proposed to solve the problems of the
The course presents the detection of ionizing radiation in the keV and MeV energy ranges. Physical processes of radiation/matter interaction are introduced. All steps of detection are covered, as well
Uranium-238 (238U or U-238) is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature, with a relative abundance of 99%. Unlike uranium-235, it is non-fissile, which means it cannot sustain a chain reaction in a thermal-neutron reactor. However, it is fissionable by fast neutrons, and is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium-239. 238U cannot support a chain reaction because inelastic scattering reduces neutron energy below the range where fast fission of one or more next-generation nuclei is probable.
The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years (4.54 × 109 years ± 1%). This age may represent the age of Earth's accretion, or core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the radiometric ages of the oldest-known terrestrial material and lunar samples. Following the development of radiometric age-dating in the early 20th century, measurements of lead in uranium-rich minerals showed that some were in excess of a billion years old.
Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or nuclides, as technical term) of the same element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), but differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) due to different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. While all isotopes of a given element have almost the same chemical properties, they have different atomic masses and physical properties.
We explore statistical physics in both classical and open quantum systems. Additionally, we will cover probabilistic data analysis that is extremely useful in many applications.
We explore statistical physics in both classical and open quantum systems. Additionally, we will cover probabilistic data analysis that is extremely useful in many applications.
A large variety of new physics models suggest that the rates for lepton flavour violating b-hadron decays may be much higher than predicted in the Standard Model, which leads to a high interest in the search for such decays. This thesis presents the sear ...
Charge separation processes in organic semiconductors play a pivotal role in diverse applications ranging from photovoltaics to photocatalysis. Understanding these mechanisms, particularly the role of hybrid charge-transfer (CT) states, is essential for ad ...
A sample of 3984 candidates of the K+ -> pi(+)gamma gamma decay, with an estimated background of 291 +/- 14 events, was collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN during 2017-2018. In order to describe the observed di-photon mass spectrum, the next-to-leadin ...