Particle Physics

AS Level
Atomic Structure
• Draw an atom.
• What is nuclear decay.
• The atoms of all elements are made up of three particles called
protons, neutrons and electrons.
• Protons and neutrons are called nucleons because they are found in
the nucleus.
• Electrons orbit the nucleus.
Plum pudding theory
• The plum pudding theory, also known as the Thomson
model, was a scientific theory proposed by J.J.
Thomson in 1904.

• At the time, the structure of the atom was not well

understood, and it was believed that atoms were
indivisible and were the basic building blocks of matter.

• The ‘plum-pudding’ model, regarded the atom as a

positively charged sphere in which the negative
electrons were distributed all over it.(electrons are the
negatively charged plums in a positively charged
pudding)
Relative sizes of particles
• The mass of a proton is 1u or 1 amu = 1.66 x kg
• An electron may be considered to have a mass of 0u because it’s
relatively light.
Important numbers
• Proton number/Atomic number (Z).
• Nucleon number/Mass number (A).
• Nucleons
Isotopes

• Isotopes are different forms of the same element which have the same number of
protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.

• Examples of isotopes:

• Chlorine – 35

• Chlorine – 37

• Students give more examples

• A nuclide is a nucleus with a particular nucleon number and a particular proton

number.
Isotopes
• Isotopes of an element are atoms that have the same number of protons
but different numbers of neutrons.

• An element may have more than one isotope.

• Isotopes have identical chemical properties since they have the same
number of electrons and occupy the same place in the

Periodic Table.

• Few elements consist of identical atoms;

most are mixtures of isotopes.

• Radioactive isotopes are termed radioisotopes

Uses of isotopes
• Students research
Radiation particles
• Some elements have nuclei which are unstable.
• These nuclei emit particles/electromagnetic radiation, particles are
said to be radioactive, and the emission is called radioactivity.
• There are three different types of emission:
• Alpha particles,
• Beta particles and
• Gamma radiation
Radiation particles
• All the particles originate from the nucleus.
Investigating nature of particles
• Emissions are not visible to the eye so to track radiation we use
apparatus like:
• Bubble chamber
• Photographic plate
• Geiger counter
• Scintillation counter
Bubble/cloud chamber
Photographic plate
Geiger counter
Scintillation counter
Alpha scattering experiment
• Sir Enerst Rutherford discovered that radiation is emitted in
radioactivity.
• 1906 he did an experiment with thin mica sheet and noticed
that most of the alpha particles passed straight through.
• (Mica – natural mineral that can be split into thin sheets.
Alpha scattering experiment

• 1911 Rutherford
together with Hans
Gieiger and Ernest
Marsden further
carried series of
experiments using
gold.
Scattering experiments
• They found that most of the
a-particles were
undeflected, some were
scattered by appreciable
angles and a few (about 1 in
20 000) were deflected
through an angle of more
than 90, so that they
Alpha scattering experiment
• Most of the alpha particles
went straight.
• This made them think that
an atom is mostly empty
space, with most of the
mass and all of the positive
charge concentrated in a
tiny region at the centre.
Alpha scattering experiment
Alpha scattering experiment -
discoveries
1. Most of the alpha particles went straight.
2. A small number of particles were deviated through an
angle of more than 10 degrees
3. An extremely small number of particles (1 in 20 000)
were deflected through an angle greater than 90
degrees
Alpha scattering experiment –
conclusion drawn
1. The majority of the mass of an atom is concentrated in a
very small volume at the centre of the atom. Most alpha
particles would, therefore pass through the foil
undeviated.
2. The centre (nucleus) of an atom is charged. Alpha
particles, which are also charged, passing close to the
nucleus will experience a repulsive force causing them to
deviate. (electrostatic repulsion)
Alpha scattering experiment –
conclusion drawn
3. Only alpa particles that pass very close to the nucleus,
almost striking it head-on, will experience large enough
repulsive forces to cause them to deviate through angles
greater than 90 degrees.
The fact that so few particles did that confirms that the
nucleus is very small, and most of the atom is empty space.
Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom
Nucleons and electrons
Nucleons
• Protons and neutrons in a nucleus are collectively called nucleons.
• Example
Gold 79 protons and 118 neutrons
Nucleon number = 197

The nucleon number is the sum of the number of neutrons and protons in
the nucleus

A –nucleon number
N - neutron number
Repetition of alpha-scatter
experiment
• Years later the alpha particle scattering
experiment was repeated using alpha- particles
with higher energies.
• Some discrepancies between the experimental
results and Rutherford’s scattering experiment
were observed.
Repetition of alpha-scatter
experiment
• These seemed to be occurring because the high-
energy alpha-particles passing very close to the
nucleus, and were experiencing, not only the
repulsive electrostatic force, but also a strong
attractive force which appears to act over only a very
short range.
• This became known as the strong nuclear force.
• This is the force that holds the nucleus together
Stability of atoms
• In small nuclei, the strong nuclear force from all the nucleons
reaches most of the others in the nucleus,
but as we go on adding protons and neutrons the balance
becomes much finer.
• The longer-range electrostatic force affects the whole nucleus,
but the short-range strong nuclear force of any particular
nucleon only affects those nucleons around it – the rest of the
nucleus is unaffected.
• In a large nucleus, the nucleons are not held together so tightly
and this can make the nucleus unstable.
Stability of atoms
• The more protons there are in a nucleus, the greater the
electric forces between them and we need a few extra
neutrons to help ‘keep the protons apart’.
• This is why heavy nuclei have more neutrons than protons.
The strong interaction can explain alpha-decay,
but not Beta-decay
Stability of atoms
• Refer – Isotopes
• Light elements – the proton and neutron number are the same.
• They become very different for heavy elements.
• Adding more neutrons helps to keep the nucleus stable, but when the number
of protons is greater than 83, adding more neutrons is not enough. see pg 287
• Elements with a proton number greater than 83 are all unstable- they undergo
radioactive decay.
Radioactivity
• 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.
• He had been looking at the properties of uranium compounds
when he noticed that they affected photographic film – he
realized that they were giving out radiation all the time and
he did several experiments.
Radiation from radioactive
substances
• 3 substances (a,b, y) come form the unstable nuclei of atoms.
• Nuclei, consists of Protons and Neutrons, if these are not balancing,
the nucleus is too big to hold together.
• Emission of these 3, helps to achieve stability
• Gamma is usually released after a and B decay, to release excess
energy from the nuclei.
Radiation from radioactive
substances
Fundamental particles
• In the 19th century, the atom was considered to be the
fundamental particle from which all matter was
composed.
• This idea was used to explain the basic structure of all
elements.
• Experiments performed at the end of the 19th century
and beginning of the 20th century provided evidence
for the structure of an atom.
Fundamental particles
• The conclusions were that all atoms have a nucleus
containing protons which is surrounded by electrons and
that the nucleus was very small compared with the size of
the atom.
• The neutron was introduced to explain the discrepancy
between the mass of the atom and the mass from the
number of protons.
• Chadwick in 1932 discovered the neutron and the
fundamental particles were then considered to be the
proton, the neutron and electron.
Fundamental particles
• The particles in an atom must experience forces in order to
maintain its structure.
• The forces where the gravitational force that acts between
all masses and the electrostatic force that acts between
charged objects.
• The electrostatic force of repulsion is approximately 10 ^36
times greater than the gravitational force of attraction
between protons.
Fundamental particles
• Another attractive force must keep the protons
together in the nucleus.
• This force is known as the STRONG FORCE and acts
between nucleons.
• The force does not seem to have any effect outside
the nucleus and is therefore, considered to be very
short range.
Fundamental particles
• There appears to be a limiting spacing between
nucleons which is similar in different nuclei and this
suggests that the force is repulsive as soon as the
nucleons come close together.
• The strong force does not act on electrons.
Radiation from radioactive
substances
• The 3 radioactive substances come from the unstable
nuclei of atom.
• If the proton and neutrons are not balancing, these 2
particles will be too far to one side, or the nucleus is
just too big to hold them together hence they emit a,
B radiation, as a way of achieving the stability.
• Gamma radiation is usually emitted after a, B, to
release excess energy from the nuclei.
Radiation from radioactive
substances
Radiation from radioactive
substances
• a & B- radiation are particles of matter.
• A y-ray is a photon of electromagnetic radiation similar to an X-ray
• An a-particle has 2 protons and 2 neutrons, it is a nucleus of helium 4
• B^- particle is an electron
• B^+ particle is a positron
Alpha Particles
• Alpha particles have atomic structure of a helium nuclei.

• They have 2 protons and 2 neutrons.

• They are the least penetrating(few centimeters in air)

• Charge +2e.

• Speed 0.05c

• Efficient ionizers (approx. 100,000 ion pairs for every cm)

Alpha Particles
• In alpha decay the proton number of the nucleus decreases by two,
and the nucleon number decreases by four

• This is called transmutation, the original nuclide is called the parent

nuclide and the other one is called the daughter nuclide.

• Equations
Beta particles
• Beta particles can be negative or positive electrons.

• The positive beta particle is called the positron.

• They are very fast, 99% of the speed of light.

• Less ionization compared to alpha particles.

• More penetrating ability compared to alpha particles.

• They are affected by magnetic and electric fields. They experience

larger deflections due to their small mass.
Beta particles: Equations

• Beta minus decay

• A free neutron is known to decay as follows:

Beta particles: Equations

• Beta plus decay

• A free proton is known to decay as follows:

Energy
• The energy is produced as kinetic energy in the
moving products.
• The products and parent nuclide have same mass-
energy.
• The energy is measured electronvolts, .
Matter and anti-matter
• When an antiparticle meets its particle, such as a positron meets
an electron, they annihilate each other and two gamma ray
photons are produced and the two masses become pure energy!
Gamma Radiation
• Gamma radiation is part of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths
between .
• Gamma rays have no charge so they are not affected by electric and magnetic
fields.
• Least ionising and most penetrating.
• Emission does not result in change of proton and neutron numbers.

•
Radioactive decay series
Families of particles
• The sub-atomic particles are divided into 2 families
• 1. Leptons (electrons and neutrinos)
• These are unaffected by strong nuclear force.
• Lepton means light (in mass)

• 2. Hadrons (protons and neutrons)

• These are all affected by the strong nuclear force.
• Hadron means bulky
Quarks
• To sort out the complicated picture of the hadron family of particles,
Murray Gell-Mann in 1964 proposed a new model.

• He suggested that they were made up of just a few different particles,

which he called quarks.

• There are many surprising things about quarks.

• First, quarks have charges of less than the fundamental charge, e.

• However, quarks are never found outside a hadron.

• The quarks combine so that the resulting hadron will have a charge of e or
a multiple of e.
Quarks
• There are six types (or ‘flavours’) of quark, each with an associated
antiquark.
Quarks
• In addition to the property of charge, quarks have other properties
such as strangeness, charm, upness and downness.
• We do not need to concern ourselves about these properties;
however, recognizing that they exist should help you to understand
how a large number of different hadrons can be made up from these
half-dozen flavours of quark.
• There are two ways in which quarks can combine to produce
hadrons:
three quarks make up a class of hadrons called baryons
• a quark and an antiquark make up a class of hadron called mesons.
The quark model of hadrons
• Hadrons (baryon) are made up of 3 quarks
• The types of quark, called flavours of quark, are up (u), down (d) and
strange (s).
The quark model of hadrons
• There are 3 antiquarks (u^-, d^- and s^-).
• These have the opposite values of charge and strangeness.
• Protons and neutrons consists of 3 quarks

• In strong interactions, the quark flavour is conserved

Beta decay
Beta decay
Weak force
• The strong nuclear force is the one that holds the nucleons in a
nucleus together.
• This is only felt by the Hadrons not leptons
• The weak nuclear force/ weak interaction is felt by both hadrons and
leptons.
• This force is the interaction that causes B-decay in which a hadron
changes to a different hadron with the emission of a lepton and an
antilepton.