Interaction of medium‐energy nucleons with complex nuclei

NOV 01, 1963

The following is based on a talk presented by the author to the members of the Student Sections of the American Institute of Physics who attended the Houston meeting of the American Physical Society in February of this year. The purpose of the talk was to present background information to the students so that they might better understand some of the nuclear physics papers presented at the APS meeting.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3050601

Louis Rosen

Although the structure of matter has intrigued and tantalized mankind for tens of centuries, it is only within the past few decades that we have built the tools with which to explore atomic nuclei. The reason for this state of affairs is to be found in the minute size of atomic nuclei and in the fact that each nucleus, by virtue of its proton inhabitants, is surrounded by a coat of armor in the form of an electrostatic, or Coulomb, field. To penetrate this field requires either high‐energy charged particles, or particles without charge, namely neutrons; but these latter are themselves constituents of complex nuclei and must be dislodged from their natural habitat either by nuclear interactions (which again involves Coulomb‐barrier penetration) or by a self‐sustaining chain reaction in fissionable material.

More about the Authors

Louis Rosen. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico.