Atom is the smallest particle of a chemical element. The chemical properties of an element depend on the structure of the atom, in particular its ability to combine with atoms of other elements to form molecules of complex substances.

An atom consists of a nucleus and electrons rotating around it in certain orbits. The atomic nucleus carries an electrical charge q= Ze, WhereZ – the serial number of an element in the periodic table, and e- so-called elementary electric charge, which cannot be divided into parts: e= 1.6 · 10 -19 C (coulomb). The charge of an electron elementary particle is – e, and the number of electrons in the orbits of an atom is equal to Z, so their total charge q e = – Ze equal in absolute value to the charge of the nucleus, but opposite in sign, so the atom as a whole is electrically neutral.

The dimensions of the atoms of all elements are approximately the same, and their radii are approximately ≈ 10 -8 cm.

1.1.2. Structure and properties of the atomic nucleus

Atomic nucleus- the central part of the atom, in which almost all of its mass is concentrated. The atomic nucleus consists of elementary particles - nucleons, which have two varieties called protons (p) And neutrons (n) . All the main characteristics of protons and neutrons - sizes, masses and others - are practically the same, and their main difference lies in the electric charge: the charge of a proton is + e, and the neutron charge is zero, i.e. the neutron is electrically neutral.

Different atomic nuclei contain different numbers of each type of nucleon. Number of protons in the nucleus Z coincides with the atomic number of the chemical element and determines the electric charge of the nucleus (see above). Number of neutrons N does not affect the charge of the nucleus, and, consequently, the atom’s belonging to one or another element. Therefore, the nuclei of atoms of the same element have the same Z , but may have different N. Varieties of the same element with different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei are called isotopeami. Since the masses of protons and neutrons are almost the same, the mass of the nucleus is determined to a first approximation by the total number of all nucleons N + Z = A . Therefore the number A called mass number. When denoting isotopes, the mass number is indicated at the top left of the symbol of the chemical element. For example, the isotopes of hydrogen are known: ordinary hydrogen, the nucleus of which is a lone proton - 1 H, heavy hydrogen (deuterium), in the nucleus of which one neutron is added to the proton - 2 H, and superheavy hydrogen (tritium) 3 H, the nuclei of which consist of one proton and two neutrons. Deuterium and tritium are sometimes designated by the symbols D and T, respectively. All elements have isotopes, and in some cases their number reaches two to three dozen. Natural uranium ( Z= 92) there are three isotopes: 234 U, 235 U and 238 U, and in addition to this, several more isotopes are artificially obtained: 232 U, 233 U, 236 U, 239 U and others. All isotopes of one element have the same chemical properties - they undergo the same chemical reactions, form the same chemical compounds, etc., but their nuclear properties can vary greatly. For example, 235 U nuclei are fissioned by slow neutrons, but 238 U nuclei are not (see below).

Nuclei with the same number of all nucleons, and therefore with the same mass numbers A, are called isobarami, i.e. kernels of approximately the same weight (from the Greek word baros - weight). Isobars are, for example, the nuclei 3 H and 3 He, or 58 Fe and 58 Ni. Sometimes nuclei are isolated isotones, containing the same number of neutrons, and nuclei isomers, which will be discussed in more detail below.

Possibility of different number combinations Z And N leads to the possibility of the existence of a huge number of different types of nuclei. Each type of kernels with specific meanings Z And N called nuclide. There are about 300 different nuclides in nature, and over 2000 more nuclides can be produced artificially.

The electric charges of protons of the same name repel each other according to the laws of electrostatics, trying to tear the nucleus into pieces. However, it is known that the nuclei of many nuclides are extremely durable objects that can exist almost forever without any changes. This fact suggests that in the nucleus there are some powerful attractive forces between the nucleons, much greater in magnitude than the forces of electrostatic repulsion. These forces are called nuclear forces. Nuclear forces have a number of specific properties that sharply distinguish them from all other forces in nature. Their large size is associated with the enormous energy reserves contained in atomic nuclei.

Dimensions of atomic nuclei extremely small - about 10 -12 cm. This means that the nucleus is 10,000 times smaller than the atom itself. But it is in these nuclei that over 99.9% of the mass of all matter and enormous energy reserves are concentrated. Experiments show that the radii of all nuclei depend on the number of nucleons in the nucleus and are expressed by a simple formula:

R=1.4·10 -13 A 1/3 cm.

Core mass. At the beginning, we note that in nuclear physics it is customary to deal not with the masses of nuclei, but with the masses of atoms, since they are easier to measure, and if necessary, the mass of the nucleus can always be easily found by subtracting it from the mass of the atom M total mass of electrons Zm e, because The electron mass is well known: m e= 9.108·10 -28 g. To express the masses of atoms in nuclear physics, a special unit is adopted, which is called atomic mass unit(amu) and is defined as one twelfth of the mass of an atom of the main isotope of carbon 12 C. 1 amu = 1.66 10 -27 kg = 1.66 10 -24 g. Expressed in These units are what the mass of an atom is called atomic mass M.. The unit of atomic mass was specially chosen so that atomic masses, rounded to whole numbers, would coincide with atomic numbers, i.e. with the number of nucleons in the nucleus. For example:

M(1 N) = 1.007825 amu,

M(238 U)=238.05076 amu

The difference between atomic mass and mass number is called excess or mass decrement: δ = M–A. It is these quantities that are usually given in tables, so as not to clutter them with unnecessary numbers, and, knowing the decrement, you can always find the exact value of the mass of the atom M=A +δ.

Atomic masses are measured using special instruments mass spectrographs And mass spectrometers, the operating principle of which is based on the deflection of ion beams in electric and magnetic fields: the heavier the ion, the less it is deflected when flying through such fields. Therefore, the magnitude of the deviation can be used to determine the mass of the ion.

Different physical methods for separating them are also based on the difference in the masses of atoms of different isotopes, since chemical methods for separating substances are completely unsuitable for separating isotopes.

Nuclear binding energy. The effect of nuclear forces can be overcome by introducing a sufficient amount of energy into the nucleus. The amount of energy that must be expended to break a nucleus into individual nucleons is called nuclear binding energy. The same amount of energy would be released during the formation of a nucleus from individual nucleons, leaving the system in the form of emitted gamma rays. The binding energy of any nucleon or groups of nucleons is determined similarly, for example: the binding energy of a neutron in a nucleus is the energy that must be expended to remove one neutron from the nucleus.

Specific binding energy of nucleons in a nucleusIN . This is the name given to the fraction of the total binding energy of a nucleus that falls on average per nucleon in the nucleus. From this definition it follows: B = E St. /A. Magnitude IN depends on the number of nucleons in the nucleus A(Fig. 1): with growth A values IN at first they increase sharply, and then, after passing a smooth maximum, they gradually decrease. Moreover, most nuclei (except the lightest) have values IN not much different from 8 MeV. The shape of the specific binding energy curve in Fig. 1.1 suggests that nuclei with average values ​​are the most tightly bound A. That's why how fission processes of heavy nuclei, so and fusion processes of light nuclei, leading to the formation of nuclei with average mass numbers are “energetically favorable”, i.e. accompanied by the release of enormous energy. Therefore, two well-known methods of obtaining “nuclear” energy are based on these processes - the fission of heavy nuclei and the fusion of light nuclei (thermonuclear), respectively.

Mass defect. According to the theory of relativity, any change in the energy of a system is accompanied by a change in its mass: Δ E =Δ M s 2 . Since binding energy is released during the formation of a nucleus from individual nucleons, according to the last relation, such a process should lead to a decrease in the mass of the system. Therefore, the mass of the nucleus is always less than the sum of the masses of the individual nucleons that make up the nucleus:

Δ M= ZM H + (A – Z)m n – M(A,Z) .

Fig.1.1. Dependence of specific binding energy on nuclide mass number.

This decrease in mass during the formation of a nucleus is called mass defect(Here M H - mass of a hydrogen atom, m n– neutron mass, M(A, Z) – mass of the atom in question.). Let us recall that although the masses of atoms appear in this expression, the atom (A, Z) contains exactly the same number of electrons as Z hydrogen atoms, so the electron masses are reduced, and the mass defect actually expresses the difference in the masses of individual nucleons and the nucleus in question.

From the above it follows that the mass defect determines the binding energy of the nucleus: E St. =Δ M s 2 . This expression can be significantly simplified if, using the relation E= M s 2 find the amount of energy corresponding to one atomic mass unit: 1a.u.m = 931.5 MeV. Then calculating the value Δ M in atomic mass units, you can easily find the binding energy value in MeV: E light (MeV) = 931.5·Δ M(a.e.m.).

The expression for the mass defect can also be simplified by expressing all the masses included in it through the corresponding decrements: M H= 1 + δ(Н), m n = 1 + δ n , M(A, Z) = A +δ( A, Z), which after reducing similar terms gives:

Δ M= Zδ(H) + (A – Z) δ n – δ( A,Z).

Energy states of nuclei. Nucleons and the atomic nuclei consisting of them, like all other elementary particles, are subject to the laws of quantum mechanics, which differ in many ways from the laws of classical physics. In particular, energy in the microcosm can change only in certain portions (quanta), and not continuously, as in classical mechanics. Accordingly, the nucleus can only be in states with certain energy values, and intermediate states turn out to be impossible. These states are usually denoted on diagrams by dashes, which are called energy levels(Fig. 1.2). Energy in such circuits is deposited from bottom to top. The state with the lowest possible energy is called main, other - excited. Usually all nuclei are in their ground states, but having received a sufficient portion of energy, they can go into one of the excited states. Energy E i , necessary for the transition of the nucleus to i-th state is indicated on the level diagrams next to the corresponding level (the energy of the ground state is taken as 0). Once on i-th level, the kernel can go to any To-th level with less energy. With such a transition, an energy difference is released, which is carried away by a gamma quantum escaping from the nucleus: E γ = E i – E To. After several such transitions, called cascade, the nucleus returns to the ground state. The time the nucleus is in an excited state is called lifetime the corresponding level and is designated by the letter τ. For lower excited levels, the values ​​of τ are usually on the order of 10 -10 – 10 -12 s, for the upper ones – even less, on the order of 10 -15 – 10 -17 s. However, some nuclei have excited levels with abnormally long lifetimes from several seconds to millions of years. Such long-lived levels are called metastable levels, and the whole phenomenon as a whole – nuclear isomerism.

Fig.1.2. Nuclear Level Diagram

In addition to energy, each level is characterized by a number of quantities, including angular momentum. In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is the quantity P=ћ√ I(I+1), Where I- so-called angular momentum quantum number. Since the value P uniquely determined by number I, then usually, when speaking about angular momentum, only this number is called. According to the laws of quantum mechanics, nuclei with an even number of nucleons have values I can only be integers: 0, 1, 2, 3,...., and for nuclei with an odd number of nucleons - only half-integers: 1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc. Each excited level has its own number value I, determined, as a rule, empirically. Numbers I strongly influence the probability of core transitions between levels: the greater the difference in values I between the initial and final levels Δ I= I i - I k, the less likely the transition is.

The atomic nucleus is the central part of the atom, in which the bulk of its mass is concentrated (more than 99.9%). The nucleus is positively charged; the charge of the nucleus is determined by the chemical element to which the atom belongs. The sizes of the nuclei of various atoms are several femtometers, which is more than 10 thousand times smaller than the size of the atom itself.

The atomic nucleus, considered as a class of particles with a certain number of protons and neutrons, is usually called a nuclide. The number of protons in a nucleus is called its charge number - this number is equal to the atomic number of the element to which the atom belongs in Mendeleev’s table (Periodic Table of Elements). The number of protons in the nucleus determines the structure of the electron shell of a neutral atom and, thus, the chemical properties of the corresponding element. The number of neutrons in a nucleus is called its isotopic number. Nuclei with the same number of protons and different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes.

In 1911, Rutherford, in his report “The Scattering of α- and β-Rays and the Structure of the Atom” at the Manchester Philosophical Society, stated:

The scattering of charged particles can be explained by supposing an atom which consists of a central electric charge concentrated at a point and surrounded by a uniform spherical distribution of opposite electricity of equal magnitude. With this arrangement of the atom, α- and β-particles, when they pass at a close distance from the center of the atom, experience large deviations, although the probability of such deviation is small.

Thus, Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus, and from this moment nuclear physics began, studying the structure and properties of atomic nuclei.

After the discovery of stable isotopes of elements, the nucleus of the lightest atom was assigned the role of a structural particle of all nuclei. Since 1920, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom has had the official name proton. After the intermediate proton-electron theory of the structure of the nucleus, which had many obvious shortcomings, first of all, it contradicted the experimental results of measurements of the spins and magnetic moments of nuclei, in 1932 James Chadwick discovered a new electrically neutral particle called the neutron. In the same year, Ivanenko and, independently, Heisenberg hypothesized the proton-neutron structure of the nucleus. Subsequently, with the development of nuclear physics and its applications, this hypothesis was completely confirmed.

Radioactivity

Radioactive decay (from the Latin radius “ray” and āctīvus “active”) is a spontaneous change in the composition (charge Z, mass number A) or internal structure of unstable atomic nuclei through the emission of elementary particles, gamma rays and/or nuclear fragments. The process of radioactive decay is also called radioactivity, and the corresponding nuclei (nuclides, isotopes and chemical elements) are radioactive. Substances containing radioactive nuclei are also called radioactive.

The law of radioactive decay is a law discovered experimentally by Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford and formulated in 1903. Modern wording of the law:

which means that the number of decays over a time interval t in an arbitrary substance is proportional to the number N of radioactive atoms of a given type present in the sample.

In this mathematical expression, λ is the decay constant, which characterizes the probability of radioactive decay per unit time and has dimension c −1. The minus sign indicates a decrease in the number of radioactive nuclei over time. The law expresses the independence of the decay of radioactive nuclei from each other and from time: the probability of the decay of a given nucleus in each subsequent unit of time does not depend on the time that has passed since the beginning of the experiment and on the number of nuclei remaining in the sample.

The solution to this differential equation is:

Or, where T is the half-life equal to the time during which the number of radioactive atoms or the activity of the sample decreases by 2 times.

12. Nuclear reactions.

A nuclear reaction is the process of interaction of an atomic nucleus with another nucleus or elementary particle, accompanied by a change in the composition and structure of the nucleus. The consequence of interaction can be nuclear fission, the emission of elementary particles or photons. The kinetic energy of newly formed particles can be much higher than the original one, and they talk about the release of energy by a nuclear reaction.

Types of nuclear reactions

Nuclear fission reaction is the process of splitting an atomic nucleus into two (less often three) nuclei with similar masses, called fission fragments. As a result of fission, other reaction products can also arise: light nuclei (mainly alpha particles), neutrons and gamma rays. Fission can be spontaneous (spontaneous) and forced (as a result of interaction with other particles, primarily neutrons). The fission of heavy nuclei is an exoenergetic process, as a result of which a large amount of energy is released in the form of kinetic energy of reaction products, as well as radiation.

Nuclear fission serves as a source of energy in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

Nuclear fusion reaction is the process of fusion of two atomic nuclei to form a new, heavier nucleus.

In addition to the new nucleus, during the fusion reaction, as a rule, various elementary particles and (or) quanta of electromagnetic radiation are also formed.

Without the supply of external energy, fusion of nuclei is impossible, since positively charged nuclei experience electrostatic repulsion forces - this is the so-called “Coulomb barrier”. To synthesize nuclei, it is necessary to bring them closer to a distance of about 10–15 m, at which the action of strong interaction will exceed the forces of electrostatic repulsion. This is possible if the kinetic energy of approaching nuclei exceeds the Coulomb barrier.

Photonuclear reaction

When a gamma quantum is absorbed, the nucleus receives an excess of energy without changing its nucleon composition, and a nucleus with an excess of energy is a compound nucleus. Like other nuclear reactions, absorption of a gamma quantum by a nucleus is possible only if the necessary energy and spin relationships are met. If the energy transferred to the nucleus exceeds the binding energy of a nucleon in the nucleus, then the decay of the resulting compound nucleus occurs most often with the emission of nucleons, mainly neutrons.

Recording nuclear reactions

The method of writing formulas for nuclear reactions is similar to writing formulas for chemical reactions, that is, the sum of the original particles is written on the left, the sum of the resulting particles (reaction products) is written on the right, and an arrow is placed between them.

Thus, the reaction of radiative capture of a neutron by a cadmium-113 nucleus is written as follows:

We see that the number of protons and neutrons on the right and left remains the same (the baryon number is conserved). The same applies to electric charges, lepton numbers and other quantities (energy, momentum, angular momentum, ...). In some reactions where the weak interaction is involved, protons can turn into neutrons and vice versa, but their total number does not change.

« Physics - 11th grade"

The structure of the atomic nucleus. Nuclear forces

Immediately after the neutron was discovered in Chadwick's experiments, the Soviet physicist D. D. Ivanenko and the German scientist W. Heisenberg in 1932 proposed a proton-neutron model of the nucleus.
It was confirmed by subsequent studies of nuclear transformations and is now generally accepted.

Proton-neutron model of the nucleus

According to the proton-neutron model, nuclei consist of two types of elementary particles - protons and neutrons.

Since the atom as a whole is electrically neutral, and the charge of a proton is equal to the modulus of the charge of an electron, the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the number of electrons in the atomic shell.
Therefore, the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the atomic number of the element Z in the periodic system of elements by D.I. Mendeleev.

The sum of the number of protons Z and number of neutrons N in the kernel is called mass number and denoted by the letter A:

A = Z + N

The masses of a proton and a neutron are close to each other and each of them is approximately equal to an atomic mass unit.
The mass of electrons in an atom is much less than the mass of its nucleus.
Therefore, the mass number of the nucleus is equal to the relative atomic mass of the element rounded to a whole number.
Mass numbers can be determined by approximately measuring the mass of nuclei using instruments that are not highly accurate.

Isotopes are nuclei with the same value Z, but with different mass numbers A, i.e. with different numbers of neutrons N.

Nuclear forces

Since nuclei are very stable, protons and neutrons must be held inside the nucleus by some forces, and very strong ones at that.
It is not gravitational forces that are too weak.
The stability of the nucleus cannot be explained by electromagnetic forces either, since electric repulsion operates between like-charged protons.
And neutrons have no electrical charge.

This means that between nuclear particles - protons and neutrons, they are called nucleons- there are special forces called nuclear forces.

What are the main properties of nuclear forces? Nuclear forces are approximately 100 times greater than electrical (Coulomb) forces.
These are the most powerful forces of all existing in nature.
Therefore, the interactions of nuclear particles are often called strong interactions.

Strong interactions manifest themselves not only in the interactions of nucleons in the nucleus.
This is a special type of interaction inherent in most elementary particles along with electromagnetic interactions.

Another important feature of nuclear forces is their short duration.
Electromagnetic forces weaken relatively slowly with increasing distance.
Nuclear forces noticeably manifest themselves only at distances equal to the size of the nucleus (10 -12 -10 -13 cm), which was already shown by Rutherford's experiments on the scattering of α-particles by atomic nuclei.
A complete quantitative theory of nuclear forces has not yet been developed.
Significant progress in its development has been achieved quite recently - in the last 10-15 years.

The nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons. These particles are held in the nucleus by nuclear forces.

Isotopes

The study of the phenomenon of radioactivity led to an important discovery: the nature of atomic nuclei was clarified.

As a result of observing a huge number of radioactive transformations, it was gradually discovered that there are substances that are identical in their chemical properties, but have completely different radioactive properties (that is, they decay differently).
They could not be separated by any of the known chemical methods.
On this basis, Soddy in 1911 suggested the possibility of the existence of elements with the same chemical properties, but differing, in particular, in their radioactivity.
These elements must be placed in the same cell of D.I. Mendeleev’s periodic system.
Soddy called them isotopes(i.e. occupying the same places).

Soddy's assumption received brilliant confirmation and profound interpretation a year later, when J. J. Thomson made precise measurements of the mass of neon ions by deflecting them in electric and magnetic fields.
He discovered that neon is a mixture of two types of atoms.
Most of them have a relative mass of 20.
But there is a small fraction of atoms with a relative atomic mass of 22.
As a result, the relative atomic mass of the mixture was taken to be 20.2.
Atoms that have the same chemical properties differ in mass.

Both types of neon atoms, naturally, occupy the same place in D.I. Mendeleev’s table and, therefore, are isotopes.
Thus, isotopes can differ not only in their radioactive properties, but also in mass.
That is why isotopes have the same charges of atomic nuclei, which means the number of electrons in the shells of atoms and, consequently, the chemical properties of isotopes are the same.
But the masses of the nuclei are different.
Moreover, nuclei can be both radioactive and stable.
The difference in the properties of radioactive isotopes is due to the fact that their nuclei have different masses.

The existence of isotopes for most chemical elements has now been established.
Some elements have only unstable (i.e. radioactive) isotopes.
The heaviest element existing in nature - uranium (relative atomic masses 238, 235, etc.) and the lightest - hydrogen (relative atomic masses 1, 2, 3) have isotopes.

Hydrogen isotopes are especially interesting, since they differ in mass by 2 and 3 times.
An isotope with a relative atomic mass of 2 is called deuterium.
It is stable (i.e., not radioactive) and appears as a small impurity (1:4500) in ordinary hydrogen.
When deuterium combines with oxygen, so-called heavy water is formed.
Its physical properties differ markedly from those of ordinary water.
At normal atmospheric pressure, it boils at 101.2 °C and freezes at 3.8 °C.

An isotope of hydrogen with atomic mass 3 is called tritium.
It is β-radioactive and has a half-life of about 12 years.

The existence of isotopes proves that the charge of the atomic nucleus does not determine all the properties of the atom, but only its chemical properties and those physical properties that depend on the periphery of the electron shell, for example, the size of the atom.
The mass of an atom and its radioactive properties are not determined by the serial number in D.I. Mendeleev’s table.

It is noteworthy that when accurately measuring the relative atomic masses of isotopes, it turned out that they were close to whole numbers.
But the atomic masses of chemical elements sometimes differ greatly from whole numbers.
Thus, the relative atomic mass of chlorine is 35.5.
This means that in its natural state, a chemically pure substance is a mixture of isotopes in various proportions.
The (approximate) integrity of the relative atomic masses of isotopes is very important for elucidating the structure of the atomic nucleus.

Most chemical elements have isotopes.
The charges of the atomic nuclei of isotopes are the same, but the masses of the nuclei are different.

Academician A. F. IOFF. "Science and Life" No. 1, 1934

The article “The Nucleus of the Atom” by academician Abram Fedorovich Ioffe opened the first issue of the journal “Science and Life,” newly created in 1934.

E. Rutherford.

F. W. Aston.

WAVE NATURE OF MATTER

At the beginning of the 20th century, the atomic structure of matter ceased to be a hypothesis, and the atom became as much a reality as the facts and phenomena common to us are real.

It turned out that the atom is a very complex formation, which undoubtedly includes electric charges, and perhaps only electric charges alone. This naturally raised the question of the structure of the atom.

The first model of the atom was modeled after the solar system. However, this idea of ​​atomic structure soon turned out to be untenable. And this is natural. The idea of ​​the atom as a solar system was a purely mechanical transfer of the picture associated with astronomical scales to the region of the atom, where the scales are only hundred-millionths of a centimeter. Such a sharp quantitative change could not but entail a very significant change in the qualitative properties of the same phenomena. This difference primarily affected the fact that the atom, unlike the solar system, must be built according to much more stringent rules than those laws that determine the orbits of the planets of the solar system.

Two difficulties arose. Firstly, all atoms of a given kind, of a given element, are completely identical in their physical properties, and therefore, the orbits of electrons in these atoms should be completely identical. Meanwhile, the laws of mechanics that govern the movement of celestial bodies provide absolutely no basis for this. Depending on the initial speed, the orbit of the planet can be, according to these laws, completely arbitrary; the planet can rotate each time with the appropriate speed in any orbit, at any distance from the Sun. If the same arbitrary orbits existed in atoms, then atoms of the same substance could not be so identical in their properties, for example, give a strictly identical luminescence spectrum. This is one contradiction.

Another was that the movement of an electron around an atomic nucleus, if we apply to it the laws that we have well studied on a large scale in laboratory experiments or even astronomical phenomena, should be accompanied by continuous radiation of energy. Consequently, the energy of the atom would have to be continuously depleted, and again the atom would not be able to maintain its properties identical and unchanged over centuries and millennia, and the whole world and all the atoms would have to experience a continuous attenuation, a continuous loss of the energy contained in them. This is also in no way compatible with the basic properties of atoms.

The last difficulty was felt especially acutely. It seemed to lead all of science into an insoluble dead end.

The eminent physicist Lorentz ended our conversation on this matter this way: “I regret that I did not die five years ago, when this contradiction did not yet exist. Then I would have died in the conviction that I had revealed part of the truth in natural phenomena.”

At the same time, in the spring of 1924, de Broglie, a young student of Langevin, expressed in his dissertation an idea that in its further development led to a new synthesis.

De Broglie's idea, then quite significantly changed, but still largely preserved, was that the motion of an electron rotating around a nucleus in an atom is not simply the motion of a certain ball, as was previously imagined, that this motion is accompanied by some a wave traveling along with a moving electron. An electron is not a ball, but some electrical substance blurred in space, the movement of which at the same time represents the propagation of a wave.

This idea, then extended not only to electrons, but also to the movement of any body - an electron, an atom, and a whole set of atoms - states that any movement of a body contains two sides, from which in some cases we can see especially clearly one side, while the other is not noticeably manifested. In one case, we see, as it were, propagating waves and do not notice the movement of the particles; in the other case, on the contrary, the moving particles themselves come to the fore, and the wave eludes our observation.

But in fact, both of these sides are always present, and, in particular, in the movement of electrons there is not only the movement of the charges themselves, but also the propagation of the wave.

It cannot be said that there is no movement of electrons in orbits, but only pulsation, only waves, i.e. something else. No, it would be more correct to say this: we do not deny at all the movement of the electrodes, which we likened to the movement of the planets around the Sun, but this movement itself has the nature of a pulsation, and not the nature of the movement of the globe around the Sun.

I will not describe here the structure of the atom, the structure of its electronic shell, which determines all the basic physical properties - cohesion, elasticity, capillarity, chemical properties, etc. All this is the result of the movement of the electronic shell, or, as we now say, pulsation atom.

THE PROBLEM OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS

The nucleus plays the most essential role in the atom. This is the center around which all electrons revolve and whose properties ultimately determine everything else.

The first thing we could learn about the nucleus is its charge. We know that an atom contains a certain number of negatively charged electrons, but the atom as a whole has no electrical charge. This means that there must be corresponding positive charges somewhere. These positive charges are concentrated in the nucleus. The nucleus is a positively charged particle around which the electron atmosphere surrounding the nucleus pulsates. The charge of the nucleus also determines the number of electrons.

The electrons of iron and copper, glass and wood are exactly the same. It is no problem for an atom to lose a few of its electrons or even to lose all its electrons. As long as a positively charged nucleus remains, this nucleus will attract as many electrons as it needs from other surrounding bodies, and the atom will be preserved. An iron atom will remain iron as long as its nucleus is intact. If it loses a few electrons, the positive charge on the nucleus will be greater than the sum of the remaining negative charges, and the entire atom as a whole will acquire an excess positive charge. Then we call it not an atom, but a positive iron ion. In another case, the atom can, on the contrary, attract more negative electrons to itself than it has positive charges - then it will be negatively charged, and we call it a negative ion; it will be a negative ion of the same element. Consequently, the individuality of an element, all its properties exist and are determined by the nucleus, the charge of this nucleus, first of all.

Further, the overwhelming majority of the mass of an atom is determined precisely by the nucleus, and not by electrons, - the mass of electrons is less than one thousandth of the mass of the entire atom; more than 0.999 of the total mass is the mass of the nucleus. This is all the more important because we consider mass to be a measure of the energy reserve that a given substance possesses; mass is the same measure of energy as erg, kilowatt-hour or calorie.

The complexity of the nucleus was revealed in the phenomenon of radioactivity, discovered shortly after X-rays, at the turn of our century. It is known that radioactive elements continuously emit energy in the form of alpha, beta and gamma rays. But such continuous radiation of energy must have some source. In 1902, Rutherford showed that the only source of this energy should be the atom, in other words, nuclear energy. The other side of radioactivity is that the emission of these rays transforms one element located in one place on the periodic table into another element with different chemical properties. In other words, radioactive processes transform elements. If it is true that the nucleus of an atom determines its individuality and that, as long as the nucleus is intact, the atom remains an atom of a given element and not some other, then the transition of one element to another means a change in the very nucleus of the atom.

The rays emitted by radioactive substances provide a first approach to getting some general idea of ​​what is contained in the nucleus.

Alpha rays are helium nuclei, and helium is the second element of the periodic table. One can therefore think that the core contains helium nuclei. But measuring the speeds at which alpha rays are emitted immediately leads to a very serious difficulty.

GAMOW'S THEORY OF RADIOACTIVITY

The nucleus is positively charged. When approaching it, any charged particle experiences a force of attraction or repulsion. On a large laboratory scale, the interactions of electric charges are determined by Coulomb's law: two charges interact with each other with a force inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them and directly proportional to the magnitude of one and the other charge. Studying the laws of attraction or repulsion that particles experience when approaching the nucleus, Rutherford found that up to distances very close to the nucleus, on the order of 10 -12 cm, the same Coulomb law is still valid. If this is so, then we can easily calculate how much work the nucleus must do in pushing away the positive charge as it leaves the nucleus and is thrown out. Alpha particles and charged helium nuclei, escaping from the nucleus, move under the repulsive effect of its charge; and the corresponding calculation shows that, under the influence of repulsion alone, the alpha particles must have accumulated a kinetic energy corresponding to at least 10 or 20 million electron volts, that is, the energy that is obtained when passing a charge equal to the charge of an electron, potential difference of 20 million volts. But in fact, when flying out of an atom, they come out with much less energy, only 1-5 million electron volts. But, besides,

It was natural to expect that the nucleus, when it ejects an alpha particle, gives it something else in addition. At the moment of ejection, something like an explosion occurs in the core, and this explosion itself imparts some kind of energy; the work of repulsive forces is added to this, and it turns out that the sum of these energies is less than what repulsion alone should give. This contradiction is removed as soon as we refuse to mechanically transfer into this area the views developed from the experience of studying large bodies, where we do not take into account the wave nature of the movement. G. A. Gamov was the first to give a correct interpretation of this contradiction and create the wave theory of the nucleus and radioactive processes.

It is known that at sufficiently large distances (more than 10 -12 cm) the nucleus repels a positive charge from itself. On the other hand, there is no doubt that inside the nucleus itself, which contains many positive charges, for some reason they do not repel. The very existence of the nucleus shows that positive charges inside the nucleus mutually attract each other, and outside the nucleus they repel each other.

How can we describe the energy conditions in and around the core? Gamow created the following representation. We will depict on the diagram (Fig. 5) the amount of positive charge energy in a given location by the distance from the horizontal line A.

As it approaches the nucleus, the energy of the charge will increase, because work will be done against the repulsive force. Inside the nucleus, on the contrary, the energy should decrease again, because here there is not mutual repulsion, but mutual attraction. At the boundaries of the nucleus there is a sharp decrease in the energy value. Our drawing is depicted on a plane; in fact, of course, you need to imagine it in space with the same distribution of energy in all other directions. Then we get that around the nucleus there is a spherical layer with high energy, like some kind of energy barrier that protects the nucleus from the penetration of positive charges, the so-called “Gamow barrier”.

If we stand on the point of view of the usual views on the movement of a body and forget about its wave nature, then we must expect that only such a positive charge can penetrate into the nucleus, the energy of which is no less than the height of the barrier. On the contrary, in order to leave the nucleus, the charge must first reach the top of the barrier, after which its kinetic energy will begin to increase as it moves away from the nucleus. If at the top of the barrier the energy was zero, then when removed from the atom it will receive those same 20 million electron volts, which are never actually observed. The new understanding of the core that Gamow introduced is as follows. The motion of a particle must be considered as a wave. Consequently, this movement is affected by energy not only at the point occupied by the particle, but also in the entire diffuse wave of the particle, covering a fairly large space. Based on the concepts of wave mechanics, we can argue that even if the energy at a given point has not reached the limit that corresponds to the top of the barrier, the particle may end up on the other side of it, where it is no longer pulled into the core by the attractive forces acting there.

The following experiment represents something similar. Imagine that there is a barrel of water behind the wall of the room. A pipe is drawn from this barrel, which passes high above through a hole in the wall and supplies water; water is pouring out below. This is a well known device called a siphon. If the barrel on that side is placed higher than the end of the pipe, then water will continuously flow through it at a speed determined by the difference in the water level in the barrel and the end of the pipe. There is nothing surprising here. But if you did not know about the existence of a barrel on the other side of the wall and saw only a pipe through which water flows from a great height, then for you this fact would seem an irreconcilable contradiction. Water flows from a great height and at the same time does not accumulate the energy that corresponds to the height of the pipe. However, the explanation in this case is obvious.

We have a similar phenomenon in the core. Charge from its normal position A rises to a state of greater energy IN, but does not reach the top of the barrier at all WITH(Fig. 6).

From the state IN an alpha particle, passing through a barrier, begins to be repelled from the nucleus not from the very top WITH, and from a lower energy height B 1. Therefore, when leaving outside, the energy accumulated by the particle will not depend on the height WITH, and from a lower height equal to B 1(Fig. 7).

This qualitative reasoning can be put into quantitative form and a law can be given that determines the probability of an alpha particle passing the barrier depending on the energy IN, which it possesses in the nucleus, and, consequently, from the energy that it receives when leaving the atom.

Through a series of experiments, a very simple law was established that connected the numbers of alpha particles emitted by radioactive substances with their energy or speed. But the meaning of this law was completely unclear.

Gamow's first success lay in the fact that this quantitative law of the emission of alpha particles followed completely precisely and easily from his theory. Now the “Gamow energy barrier” and its wave interpretation are the basis of all our ideas about the nucleus.

The properties of alpha rays are qualitatively and quantitatively well explained by Gamow's theory, but it is known that radioactive substances also emit beta rays - streams of fast electrons. The model cannot explain the emission of electrons. This is one of the most serious contradictions in the theory of the atomic nucleus, which until very recently remained unresolved, but the solution of which now appears to be in sight.

STRUCTURE OF THE CORE

Let us now move on to consider what we know about the structure of the nucleus.

More than 100 years ago, Prout expressed the idea that perhaps the elements of the periodic table are not at all separate, unrelated forms of matter, but are only different combinations of the hydrogen atom. If this were so, then one would expect that not only the charges of all nuclei would be integer multiples of the charge of hydrogen, but also the masses of all nuclei would be expressed as integer multiples of the mass of the hydrogen nucleus, i.e., all atomic weights would have to be expressed whole numbers. Indeed, if you look at the table of atomic weights, you can see a large number of integers. For example, carbon is exactly 12, nitrogen is exactly 14, oxygen is exactly 16, fluorine is exactly 19. This, of course, is not an accident. But there are still atomic weights that are far from whole numbers. For example, neon has an atomic weight of 20.2, chlorine - 35.46. Therefore, Prout's hypothesis remained a partial guess and could not become a theory of the structure of the atom. By studying the behavior of charged ions, it is especially easy to study the properties of the atomic nucleus by influencing them, for example, with an electric and magnetic field.

The method based on this, brought to extremely high accuracy by Aston, made it possible to establish that all elements whose atomic weights were not expressed in whole numbers are in fact not a homogeneous substance, but a mixture of two or more - 3, 4, 9 - different species atoms. For example, the atomic weight of chlorine is 35.46 because there are actually several kinds of chlorine atoms. There are chlorine atoms with atomic weights 35 and 37, and these two types of chlorine are mixed together in such a proportion that their average atomic weight is 35.46. It turned out that not only in this one particular case, but in all cases without exception, where atomic weights are not expressed in integers, we have a mixture of isotopes, that is, atoms with the same charge, therefore representing the same element , but with different masses. Each individual type of atom always has a whole atomic weight.

Thus, Prout's hypothesis immediately received significant reinforcement, and the question could be considered resolved if not for one exception, namely hydrogen itself. The fact is that our system of atomic weights is built not on hydrogen, taken as one, but on the atomic weight of oxygen, which is conventionally taken to be 16. In relation to this weight, atomic weights are expressed as almost exact integers. But hydrogen itself in this system has an atomic weight not of one, but somewhat more, namely 1.0078. This number differs from unity quite significantly - by 3/4%, which far exceeds all possible errors in determining atomic weight.

It turned out that oxygen also has 3 isotopes: in addition to the predominant one, with an atomic weight of 16, another with an atomic weight of 17, and a third with an atomic weight of 18. If we assign all atomic weights to isotope 16, then the atomic weight of hydrogen will still be slightly greater than one. Next, a second isotope of hydrogen was found - hydrogen with an atomic weight of 2 - deuterium, as the Americans who discovered it called it, or diplogene, as the British call it. Only about 1/6000 of this deuterium is mixed in, and therefore the presence of this impurity has very little effect on the atomic weight of hydrogen.

Next to hydrogen, helium has an atomic weight of 4.002. If it were composed of 4 hydrogens, then its atomic weight would obviously be 4.031. Therefore, in this case we have some loss in atomic weight, namely: 4.031 - 4.002 = 0.029. Is it possible? Until we considered mass as some measure of matter, of course, this was impossible: this would mean that part of the matter had disappeared.

But the theory of relativity has established beyond doubt that mass is not a measure of the amount of matter, but a measure of the energy that this matter possesses. Matter is measured not by mass, but by the number of charges that make up that matter. These charges can have more or less energy. When identical charges come closer, the energy increases; when they move away, the energy decreases. But this, of course, does not mean that matter has changed.

When we say that during the formation of helium from 4 hydrogens, 0.029 atomic weights disappeared, this means that the energy corresponding to this value disappeared. We know that each gram of a substance has an energy equal to 9. 10 20 erg. When 4 g of helium is formed, the energy lost is 0.029. 9 . 10 20 ergams. Due to this decrease in energy, 4 hydrogen nuclei will combine into a new nucleus. The excess energy will be released into the surrounding space, and a compound with slightly less energy and mass will remain. Thus, if atomic weights are not measured precisely by the integers 4 or 1, but by 4.002 and 1.0078, then it is these thousandths that acquire special significance because they determine the energy released during the formation of a nucleus.

The more energy is released during the formation of a nucleus, i.e., the greater the loss in atomic weight, the stronger the nucleus. In particular, the helium nucleus is very strong, because when it is formed, energy is released corresponding to the loss in atomic weight - 0.029. This is very high energy. To judge it, it is best to remember this simple ratio: one thousandth of an atomic weight corresponds to approximately 1 million electron volts. So 0.029 is approximately 29 million electron volts. In order to destroy a helium nucleus in order to decompose it back into 4 hydrogens, colossal energy is needed. The nucleus does not receive such energy, therefore the helium nucleus is extremely stable, and that is why it is not hydrogen nuclei that are released from radioactive nuclei, but entire helium nuclei, alpha particles. These considerations lead us to a new assessment of atomic energy. We already know that almost all the energy of an atom is concentrated in the nucleus, and enormous energy at that. 1 g of the substance has, if translated into more visual language, as much energy as can be obtained from burning 10 trains of 100 wagons of oil. Therefore, the nucleus is a completely exceptional source of energy. Compare 1 g with 10 trains - this is the ratio of the concentration of energy in the core compared to the energy that we use in our technology.

However, if you think about the facts that we are now considering, you can, on the contrary, come to a completely opposite view of the nucleus. The nucleus, from this point of view, is not a source of energy, but its graveyard: the nucleus is the remainder after the release of a huge amount of energy, and in it we have the lowest state of energy.

Consequently, if we can talk about the possibility of using nuclear energy, then only in the sense that, perhaps, not all nuclei have reached extremely low energy: after all, hydrogen and helium both exist in nature, and, therefore, not all hydrogen combined into helium, although helium has less energy. If we could fuse the existing hydrogen into helium, we would obtain a certain amount of energy. This is not 10 trains with oil, but still it will be approximately 10 cars with oil. And this is not so bad if it were possible to obtain as much energy from 1 g of a substance as from burning 10 wagons of oil.

These are the possible energy reserves during the rearrangement of nuclei. But possibility, of course, is far from reality.

How can these opportunities be realized? In order to evaluate them, let us move on to consider the composition of the atomic nucleus.

We can now say that all nuclei contain positive hydrogen nuclei, which are called protons, have unit atomic weight (1.0078 to be exact) and unit positive charge. But the nucleus cannot consist of protons alone. Take, for example, the heaviest element, ranked 92nd on the periodic table, uranium, with an atomic weight of 238. If we assume that all of these 238 units are made up of protons, then uranium would have 238 charges, whereas it has only 92. Consequently, either not all particles there are charged, or there are 146 negative electrons in addition to 238 protons. Then everything is fine: the atomic weight would be 238, positive charges 238 and negative 146, therefore, the total charge is 92. But we have already established that the assumption of the presence of electrons in the nucleus is incompatible with our ideas: neither in size nor in the magnetic properties of electrons in the core cannot be placed. Some kind of contradiction remained.

DISCOVERY OF THE NEUTRON

This contradiction was destroyed by a new experimental fact, which was discovered about two years ago by Irene Curie and her husband Joliot (Irene Curie is the daughter of Marie Curie, who discovered radium). Irene Curie and Joliot discovered that when beryllium (the fourth element of the periodic table) is bombarded with alpha particles, beryllium emits some strange rays that penetrate enormous thicknesses of matter. It would seem that since they penetrate substances so easily, they should not cause any significant effects there, otherwise their energy would be depleted and they would not penetrate the substance. On the other hand, it turns out that these rays, colliding with the nucleus of an atom, reject it with enormous force, as if hit by a heavy particle. So, on the one hand, one must think that these rays are heavy nuclei, and on the other hand, they are capable of passing through enormous thicknesses without exerting any influence.

The resolution to this contradiction was found in the fact that this particle is not charged. If a particle does not have an electric charge, then nothing will act on it, and it itself will not act on anything. Only when, during its movement, it runs into a cannonball somewhere, does it throw it away.

Thus, new uncharged particles appeared - neutrons. It turned out that the mass of this particle is approximately the same as the mass of a hydrogen particle - 1.0065 (one thousandth less than a proton, therefore, its energy is approximately 1 million electron volts less). This particle is similar to a proton, but only lacks a positive charge, it is neutral, it was called a neutron.

Once the existence of neutrons became clear, a completely different idea of ​​the structure of the nucleus was proposed. It was first expressed by D. D. Ivanenko, and then developed, especially by Heisenberg, who received the Nobel Prize last year. The nucleus can contain protons and neutrons. It could be assumed that the nucleus is composed only of protons and neutrons. Then the whole construction of the periodic system seems completely different, but very simple. How, for example, should one imagine uranium? Its atomic weight is 238, i.e. there are 238 particles. But some of them are protons, some are neutrons. Each proton has a positive charge; neutrons have no charge at all. If the charge of uranium is 92, then this means that 92 are protons, and the rest are neutrons. This idea has already led to a number of very remarkable successes and immediately clarified a number of properties of the periodic system that previously seemed completely mysterious. When there are few protons and neutrons, then, according to modern concepts of wave mechanics, one should expect that the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus is the same. Only a proton has a charge, and the number of protons gives the atomic number. And the atomic weight of an element is the sum of the weights of protons and neutrons, because both have one atomic weight. On this basis, we can say that the atomic number is half of the atomic weight.

Now there still remains one difficulty, one contradiction. This is the contradiction created by beta particles.

DISCOVERY OF THE POSITRON

We have come to the conclusion that there is nothing in the nucleus except a positively charged proton. How then are negative electrons ejected from the nucleus if there are no negative charges there at all? As you can see, we are in a difficult situation.

We are again led out of it by a new experimental fact, a new discovery. This discovery was made, perhaps for the first time, by D.V. Skobeltsyn, who, having been studying cosmic rays for a long time, found that among the charges that cosmic rays emit, there are also positive light particles. But this discovery was so contrary to everything that was firmly established that Skobeltsyn at first did not give such an interpretation to his observations.

The next person to discover this phenomenon was the American physicist Andersen in Pasadena (California), and after him in England, in Rutherford's laboratory, Blackett. These are positive electrons or, as they were not very well called, positrons. That these are indeed positive electrons can most easily be seen by their behavior in a magnetic field. In a magnetic field, electrons are deflected in one direction, and positrons in the other, and the direction of their deflection determines their sign.

At first, positrons were observed only during the passage of cosmic rays. Quite recently, the same Irene Curie and Joliot discovered a new remarkable phenomenon. It turned out that there is a new type of radioactivity, that the nuclei of aluminum, boron, magnesium, which themselves are not radioactive, when bombarded with alpha rays, become radioactive. For 2 to 14 minutes, they continue to emit particles of their own accord, and these particles are no longer alpha and beta rays, but positrons.

The theory of positrons was created much earlier than the positron itself was found. Dirac set himself the task of giving the equations of wave mechanics such a form that they would also satisfy the theory of relativity.

These Dirac equations, however, led to a very strange consequence. The mass enters them symmetrically, i.e., when the sign of the mass changes to the opposite, the equations do not change. This symmetry of the equations with respect to mass allowed Dirac to predict the possibility of the existence of positive electrons.

At that time, no one had observed positive electrons, and there was a strong belief that there were no positive electrons (this can be judged by the caution with which both Skobeltsyn and Andersen approached this issue), so Dirac’s theory was rejected. Two years later, positive electrons were actually found, and, naturally, they remembered Dirac's theory, which predicted their appearance.

"MATERIALIZATION" AND "ANNIHILATION"

This theory is associated with a number of unfounded interpretations that surround it from all sides. Here I would like to analyze the process of materialization, so named on the initiative of Madame Curie - the appearance, when gamma rays pass through matter, simultaneously of a pair of positive and negative electrons. This experimental fact is interpreted as the transformation of electromagnetic energy into two particles of matter that did not exist before. This fact, therefore, is interpreted as the creation and disappearance of matter under the influence of those other rays.

But if we take a closer look at what we actually observe, it is easy to see that such an interpretation of the appearance of pairs has no basis. In particular, Skobeltsyn’s work clearly shows that the appearance of a pair of charges under the influence of gamma rays does not occur in empty space at all; the appearance of pairs is always observed only in atoms. Consequently, here we are not dealing with the materialization of energy, not with the appearance of some new matter, but only with the separation of charges within the matter that already exists in the atom. Where was she? One must think that the process of splitting a positive and negative charge occurs not far from the nucleus, inside the atom, but not inside the nucleus (at a relatively not very large distance of 10 -10 -10 -11 cm, while the radius of the nucleus is 10 -12 -10 -13 cm ).

Exactly the same can be said about the reverse process of “matter annihilation” - the combination of a negative and a positive electron with the release of one million electron volts of energy in the form of two quanta of electromagnetic gamma rays. And this process always occurs in the atom, apparently near its nucleus.

Here we come to the possibility of resolving the contradiction we have already noted, which results from the emission of beta rays of negative electrons by a nucleus, which, as we think, does not contain electrons.

Obviously, beta particles do not fly out from the nucleus, but because of the nucleus; Due to the release of energy inside the nucleus, a process of splitting into positive and negative charges occurs near it, with the negative charge being ejected, and the positive charge being drawn into the nucleus and bonding with a neutron, forming a positive proton. This is the assumption that has been made recently.

Here's what we know about the composition of the atomic nucleus.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, let's say a few words about future prospects.

If, in the study of atoms, we reached certain boundaries beyond which quantitative changes transformed into new qualitative properties, then at the boundaries of the atomic nucleus those laws of wave mechanics that we discovered in the atomic shell cease to operate; in the core, the still very unclear contours of a new, even more generalizing theory begin to be felt, in relation to which wave mechanics represents only one side of the phenomenon, the other side of which is now beginning to open - and begins, as always, with contradictions.

Work on the atomic nucleus also has another very interesting side, closely intertwined with the development of technology. The core is very well protected by the Gamow barrier from external influences. If, not limiting ourselves to just observing the decay of nuclei in radioactive processes, we wanted to break into the nucleus from the outside and rebuild it, then this would require an extremely powerful impact.

The problem of the core most urgently requires further development of technology, a transition from those voltages that have already been mastered by high-voltage technology, from voltages of several hundred thousand volts to millions of volts. A new stage is being created in technology. This work on creating new voltage sources of millions of volts is now being carried out in all countries - both abroad and here, in particular in the Kharkov laboratory, which was the first to begin this work, and at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, and in other places.

The nuclear problem is one of the most pressing problems of our time in physics; it must be worked on with extreme intensity and perseverance, and in this work it is necessary to have great courage of thought. In my presentation, I pointed out several cases when, moving to new scales, we became convinced that our logical habits, all our ideas built on limited experience, were not suitable for new phenomena and new scales. We need to overcome this common sense conservatism inherent in each of us. Common sense is the concentrated experience of the past; it cannot be expected that this experience will fully embrace the future. In the core region, more than in any other, one has to constantly keep in mind the possibility of new qualitative properties and not be afraid of them. It seems to me that it is here that the power of the dialectical method should be felt, a method devoid of this conservatism, which predicted the entire course of development of modern physics. Of course, what I mean here by the dialectical method is not a set of phrases taken from Engels. It is not his words, but their meaning that must be transferred to our work; Only one dialectical method can move us forward in such a completely new and advanced area as the problem of the nucleus.

>> Structure of the atomic nucleus. Nuclear forces

§ 104 STRUCTURE OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS. NUCLEAR FORCES

Immediately after the neutron was discovered in Chadwick's experiments, the Soviet physicist D. D. Ivanenko and the German scientist W. Heisenberg proposed a proton-neutron model of the nucleus in 1932. It was confirmed by subsequent studies of nuclear transformations and is now generally accepted.

Proton-neutron model of the nucleus. According to the proton-neutron model, nuclei consist of two types of elementary particles - protons and neutrons.

Since, on the whole, the atom is electrically neutral, and the charge of the proton is equal to the modulus of the charge of the e-electron, the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the number of electrons in the atomic shell. Consequently, the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the atomic number of the element Z in the periodic table of elements of D.I. Mendeleev.

The sum of the number of protons Z and the number of neutrons N in the nucleus is called the mass number and is denoted by the letter A:

A = Z + N. (13.2)

The masses of a proton and a neutron are close to each other, and each is approximately equal to an atomic mass unit. The mass of electrons in an atom is much less than the mass of its nucleus. Therefore, the mass number of the nucleus is equal to the relative atomic mass of the element rounded to a whole number. Mass numbers can be determined by approximately measuring the mass of nuclei using instruments that are not highly accurate.

Isotopes are nuclei with the same value but with different mass numbers A, that is, with different numbers of neutrons N.

Nuclear forces. Since nuclei are very stable, protons and neutrons must be held inside the nucleus by some forces, and very strong ones at that. What are these forces? We can immediately say that these are not gravitational forces, which are too weak. The stability of the nucleus cannot be explained by electromagnetic forces either, since electric repulsion operates between like-charged protons. And neutrons have no electrical charge.

This means that between nuclear particles - protons and neutrons (they are called nucleons) - there are special forces called nuclear forces.

What are the main properties of nuclear forces? Nuclear forces are approximately 100 times greater than electrical (Coulomb) forces. These are the most powerful forces of all existing in nature. Therefore, interactions between nuclear particles are often called strong interactions.

Strong interactions are manifested not only in the interactions of nucleons in the nucleus. This is a special type of interaction inherent in most elementary particles along with electromagnetic interactions.

Another important feature of nuclear forces is their short range. Electromagnetic forces weaken relatively slowly with increasing distance. Nuclear forces noticeably manifest themselves only at distances equal to the size of the nucleus (10 -12 -10 -13 cm), which was already shown by Rutherford's experiments on the scattering of particles by atomic nuclei. Nuclear forces are, so to speak, “a hero with very short arms.” A complete quantitative theory of nuclear forces has not yet been developed. Significant progress in its development has been achieved quite recently - in the last 10-15 years.

The nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons. These particles are held in the nucleus by nuclear forces.

What are the main features of nuclear forces!