Nuclear Liquid-Drop Model Applied to Radioactive Decay Modes
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The liquid-drop model in nuclear physics was originally proposed by George Gamow and developed by Hans Bethe and Carl von Weizsäcker in the 1930s. It treats the nucleus as an incompressible fluid of protons and neutrons bound together by the strong nuclear force. It treats the nucleus as an incompressible fluid of protons and neutrons bound together by the strong nuclear force. For a nuclide containing protons and neutronsWeizsäcker's semi-empirical formula for the mass of a nucleus has the form
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Contributed by: S. M. Blinder and B. Ritchie (July 2008)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
Snapshot 1: decay of radium to radon; two other decay modes are not predicted by the liquid-drop model
Snapshot 2: nuclei with an excess of neutrons are likely to undergo decay
Snapshot 3: whereas those with a neutron deficit will favor decay
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