Rutherford's Gold Foil Alpha Particle Interactions

[Kalyan Mokirala]

Hi All,
I am asking this question as a lay man based on the questions which my 10 year old kid raised while explaining alpha ray scattering experiment.
As Alpha particle is a high energetic particle when it interacts with electron of gold atom it ejects the electron. Is there any probability if getting an alpha particle converted to Helium during such interaction?
In fact when alpha particles comes to rest it will attract 2 electrons becoming helium. What happens to alpha particle if it is present in inert atmosphere/Vacuum having no electrons?
Are there any chances of artificial transmutation during the interaction of alpha particle with the nucleus of gold?

 

[sophiecentaur]

Once an Alpha Particle slows down, it will always become a Helium Atom, eventually as it is doubly charged and will attract nearby free electrons. The total number of electrons in the (neutral) equipment or the lab will always be the same as the number of protons so that process is inevitable. Imagine an alpha particle bumping into a piece of metal. There are vast numbers of electrons floating around in the metal lattice and anyone of them would attach to the alpha particle. That whole piece of metal would have a net charge of +2e, which is negligible.
The energy needed for transmutation can be high and it's neutrons that are responsible for fission in reactors, I believe. But there are fission products that, in themselves, are very unstable and they will decay spontaneously, left to themselves So an alpha particle could well cause fission in that case. The basics of nuclear reactions in stars involves alpha particles and others, colliding to form heavy nuclei. See this link. There is a limit (Iron) to the size of nucleus that can be formed in a star because of the energy available. Heavier nuclei have to be formed in Supernovae where there is more energy available.

 

[BvU]

The scattering experiment is about the scattering of the alpha particles themselves.

Ionizing radiation has enough kinetic energy to knock electrons from whatever they go through.

An alpha particle is a Helium nucleus