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Radioactive Disintegration and Nuclear Spin

Abstract

IT is well known that in radioactive disintegration, an α-particle escaping from the nucleus has to cross a potential barrier formed at great distances by Coulomb repulsion forces and at small distances by attractive forces of yet unknown nature. Wave mechanics permits us to calculate the transparency of such a barrier and to obtain the formula connecting the decay constant λ, the velocity v of the ejected α-particle, the charge number Z of the disintegrating element, and the radius r0 of the internal nuclear region.1

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References

  1. G. Gamow, "Constitution of Atomic Nuclei and Radioactivity," Oxford. 1931.

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  2. G. Gamow, NATURE, Sept. 13, 1930.

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GAMOW, G. Radioactive Disintegration and Nuclear Spin. Nature 129, 470 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129470a0

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