14.7: What Holds the Nucleus Together

Learning Objectives

• Explain the nuclear forces.

A variety of experiments indicate that a nucleus behaves something like a tightly packed ball of nucleons, as illustrated in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\). These nucleons have large kinetic energies and, thus, move rapidly in very close contact. What forces hold a nucleus together? The nucleus is very small and its protons, being positive, exert tremendous repulsive forces on one another. (The Coulomb force increases as charges get closer, since it is proportional to \(1 / r^{2}\), even at the tiny distances found in nuclei.) The answer is that two previously unknown forces hold the nucleus together and make it into a tightly packed ball of nucleons.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): A model of the nucleus.

These forces are called the weak and strong nuclear forces. Nuclear forces are so short ranged that they fall to zero strength when nucleons are separated by only a few fm. However, like glue, they are strongly attracted when the nucleons get close to one another. The strong nuclear force is about 100 times more attractive than the repulsive EM force, easily holding the nucleons together. Nuclear forces become extremely repulsive if the nucleons get too close, making nucleons strongly resist being pushed inside one another, something like ball bearings.

The fact that nuclear forces are very strong is responsible for the very large energies emitted in nuclear decay. During decay, the forces do work, and since work is force times the distance, a large force can result in a large emitted energy. In fact, we know that there are two distinct nuclear forces because of the different types of nuclear decay—the strong nuclear force is responsible for \(\alpha\) decay, while the weak nuclear force is responsible for \(\beta\) decay.

The many stable and unstable nuclei we have explored, and the hundreds we have not discussed, can be arranged in a table called the chart of the nuclides, a simplified version of which is shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\). Nuclides are located on a plot of \(N\) versus \(Z\). Examination of a detailed chart of the nuclides reveals patterns in the characteristics of nuclei, such as stability, abundance, and types of decay, analogous to but more complex than the systematics in the periodic table of the elements.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Simplified chart of the nuclides, a graph of \(N\) versus \(Z\) for known nuclides. The patterns of stable and unstable nuclides reveal characteristics of the nuclear forces. The dashed line is for \(N=Z\). Numbers along diagonals are mass numbers \(A\). (Source.)

In principle, a nucleus can have any combination of protons and neutrons, but Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\) shows a definite pattern for those that are stable. For low-mass nuclei, there is a strong tendency for \(N\) and \(Z\) to be nearly equal. This means that the nuclear force is more attractive when \(N=Z\). More detailed examination reveals greater stability when \(N\) and \(Z\) are even numbers—nuclear forces are more attractive when neutrons and protons are in pairs. For increasingly higher masses, there are progressively more neutrons than protons in stable nuclei. This is due to the ever-growing repulsion between protons. Since nuclear forces are short ranged, and the Coulomb force is long ranged, an excess of neutrons keeps the protons a little farther apart, reducing Coulomb repulsion. Decay modes of nuclides out of the region of stability consistently produce nuclides closer to the region of stability. There are more stable nuclei having certain numbers of protons and neutrons, called magic numbers. Magic numbers indicate a shell structure for the nucleus in which closed shells are more stable. Nuclear shell theory has been very successful in explaining nuclear energy levels, nuclear decay, and the greater stability of nuclei with closed shells. We have been producing ever-heavier transuranic elements since the early 1940s, and we have now produced the element with \(Z=118\). There are theoretical predictions of an island of relative stability for nuclei with such high \(Z\) s.

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): The German-born American physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906–1972) shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in physics with J. Jensen for the creation of the nuclear shell model. This successful nuclear model has nucleons filling shells analogous to electron shells in atoms. It was inspired by patterns observed in nuclear properties. (credit: Nobel Foundation via Wikimedia Commons)

Section Summary

• There are two nuclear forces, the weak and the strong.
• Systematics in nuclear stability seen on the chart of the nuclides indicate that there are shell closures in nuclei for values of \(Z\) and \(N\) equal to the magic numbers, which correspond to highly stable nuclei.

Glossary

chart of the nuclides

a table comprising stable and unstable nuclei

magic numbers

a number that indicates a shell structure for the nucleus in which closed shells are more stable

nucleons

the particles found inside nuclei

nucleus

a region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom

nuclide

a type of atom whose nucleus has specific numbers of protons and neutrons

protons

the positively charged nucleons found in a nucleus