- #1
sunrah
- 199
- 22
I am confused about spontaneous fission. My basic understanding is that like α-decay the tunnel effect is responsible. We have a potential barrier caused by the superposition of surface tension energy and coulomb potential through which an energised nuclear fragment can tunnel with a certain probability.
How does the potential barrier of the nucleus relate to its binding energy? I have read that in reality it is only very large nuclei that undergo spontaneous fission; these nuclei have have lower binding energies per nucleon. How does reduction in B/A effect size of potential barrier? Also in class we have derived the tunneling probability
[itex]T \propto e^{-2G}[/itex]
where G is the Gamov funktion. I have read that [itex]G \propto m[/itex] and that heavier particles/fragments have lower tunneling probability that is why α-decay is much more common than spontaneous fission of heavy nuclei. If so why are heavy nuclei more likely to fission spontaneously than lighter ones?
How does the potential barrier of the nucleus relate to its binding energy? I have read that in reality it is only very large nuclei that undergo spontaneous fission; these nuclei have have lower binding energies per nucleon. How does reduction in B/A effect size of potential barrier? Also in class we have derived the tunneling probability
[itex]T \propto e^{-2G}[/itex]
where G is the Gamov funktion. I have read that [itex]G \propto m[/itex] and that heavier particles/fragments have lower tunneling probability that is why α-decay is much more common than spontaneous fission of heavy nuclei. If so why are heavy nuclei more likely to fission spontaneously than lighter ones?