Radioactive capture of proton and neutron

Hi,

I'm considering the following process

n+p→d+$\gamma$ where d is the deuteron and $\gamma$ a photon.

I want to find out the energy of the photon. I know it will be much less than the rest mass of the deuteron (1875.666 MeV/c2). Can I simply use conservation of energy here?

i.e E$\gamma$ = Ei - Ef?

Thanks :)

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Simon Bridge
Homework Helper
Energy is certainly conserved - yep.
Momentum is also conserved and photons carry momentum.

So is it really as simple as E$\gamma$ = (En+Ep) - Ed?

Simon Bridge
Homework Helper
Pretty much. On the scale of nuceons physics gets real simple ... and then it gets weird.
Anyway, the deuteron mass-deficit is termed it's "nuclear binding energy". This energy is released in fusion and you have to supply this energy for fission.

thanks for clearing that up :)

just one more thing, if considering the particles to be relativistic, is it still sufficient to apply simple energy conservation?

Or should the 4-vector formalism be used?

Simon Bridge