chapter 11 : Nuclear Reactions

Ex11.1 : : Pg: 229

In [8]:
#Energy balance of a nuclear reaction
mu = 931.5     # Energy equivalent of 1 amu, MeV
M_D = 2.0141     # Mass of deuterium atom, amu
M_He = 3.01603     # Mass of helium-3, amu
mn = 1.008665     # Mass of neutron, amu
MD = (2*M_D - M_He - mn)     # Mass defect of the reaction, amu
Q = MD*mu     # Energy balance of the nuclear reaction, MeV
print  "The energy balance of the nuclear reaction = %4.2f MeV"% Q 
The energy balance of the nuclear reaction = 3.26 MeV

Ex11.2: : Pg:229

In [9]:
#Threshold energy for the reaction
mu = 931.5     # Energy equivalent of 1 amu, MeV
mx = 1.008665     # Mass of neutron, amu
Mx = 13.003355     # Mass of carbon atom, amu
M_alpha = 4.002603     # Mass of alpha particle, amu
M_Be = 10.013534     # Mass of beryllium, amu
MD = (Mx + mx - M_Be - M_alpha)     # Mass defect of the reaction, amu
Q = MD*mu     # Q-value of the nuclear reaction, MeV
E_th = -Q*(1 + mx/Mx)     # Threshold energy for the reaction in the laboratory, MeV
print  "The threshold energy of the reaction is = %4.2f MeV"% E_th  
The threshold energy of the reaction is = 4.13 MeV

Ex11.3 : : Pg: 229

In [10]:
#Gamma ray emission
h_bar = 1.0e-034     # Order of reduced Planck's constant, Js
e = 1.0e-019     # Order of energy equivalent of 1 eV, J/eV
tau1 = 1e-009     # Life time of gamma ray emission, sec
tau2 = 1e-012     # Life time of gamma ray emission, sec 
W1 = h_bar/tau1     # Full width at half maxima for tau1, eV
W2 = h_bar/tau2     # Full width at half maxima for tau2, eV
print  "The full width at half maxima for %1.0e = %1.0e eV"%(tau1, W1/e) 
print  "The full width at half maxima for %1.0e = %1.0e eV"%(tau2, W2/e) 
The full width at half maxima for 1e-09 = 1e-06 eV
The full width at half maxima for 1e-12 = 1e-03 eV