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Alpha Particle Tunneling in Nuclei

This document provides an exercise on tunneling from a physics class. It presents Gamow's 1928 model of alpha decay as a radioactive nucleus emitting an alpha particle that must tunnel through a potential energy barrier. The model depicts the potential energy curve for the alpha particle as a square well within the nucleus dropping off to a repulsive Coulombic tail. The exercise asks students to calculate the tunneling probability and lifetime of the radioactive nucleus using the WKB approximation formula provided.

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38 views1 page

Alpha Particle Tunneling in Nuclei

This document provides an exercise on tunneling from a physics class. It presents Gamow's 1928 model of alpha decay as a radioactive nucleus emitting an alpha particle that must tunnel through a potential energy barrier. The model depicts the potential energy curve for the alpha particle as a square well within the nucleus dropping off to a repulsive Coulombic tail. The exercise asks students to calculate the tunneling probability and lifetime of the radioactive nucleus using the WKB approximation formula provided.

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Apu
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Thomas Ihn

Semiconductor Nanostructures
Fall 2017

Exercise 9 released: 15.11.2017


Topic: Tunneling discussed: 22.11.2017

Problem 1

In 1928, George Gamow provided the first theory of alpha decay, the spontaneous
emission of an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) by certain radioactive
nuclei. Since the alpha particle carries a positive charge (2e), it will be electrically
repelled by the leftover nucleus (charge Ze) as soon as it gets far enough away to escape
the nuclear binding force. We picture the potential energy curve for the alpha particle
as a finite square well (representing the attractive nuclear force), extending out to r1
joined to a repulsive Coulombic tail, as sketched in the figure.

Figure 1: Gamow’s model for the potential energy of an alpha particle in a radioactive
nucleus.

1. Calculate the tunneling probability.

2. Calculate the lifetime of the radioactive nucleus.

Hint: In order to calculate the tunneling probability, Gamow used the result of the WKB
(Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin)1 approximation. It follows that the tunneling probability
is:
T ∼
= e−2γ

where Z r2
1 p
γ≡ |p(r)|dr and p(r) ≡ 2m[E − V (r)].
h̄ r1

1
In Holland it’s KWB, in France BWK, and in England it’s JWKB (J for Jeffreys).

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