The law of radioactive decay

The physical law of radioactive decay waswas formulated after in 1896 Becquerel discovered the phenomenon of radioactivity. It consists in the unpredictable transition of some types of nuclei to others, while they differentiate different types of radiation and particle elements. The process is natural when it appears in isotopes existing in nature, and artificial, in cases of obtaining these in nuclear reactions. The nucleus that disintegrates is considered the parent, and the resulting one is the child. In other words, the basic law of radioactive decay includes an arbitrary natural process of converting one nucleus into another.

The study of Becquerel showed the presence of saltsUranium of previously unknown radiation, which affected the photographic plate, filled the air with ions and had the property of passing through thin plates of metal. The experiments of M. and P. Curie with radium and polonium confirmed the conclusion described above, and a new concept appeared in science, called the teaching of radioactive radiation.

This theory, reflecting the law of radioactivedecay, is based on the assumption of a spontaneous process that obeys statistics. Since the individual nuclei decay independently of each other, it is considered that on average the number of decays for a certain time interval is proportional to the undisturbed by the time of the end of the process. If we follow the exponential law, then the number of the latter decreases significantly.

The intensity of the phenomenon is characterized by two mainproperties of radiation: the period of the so-called half-life and the average lifetime of the radioactive nucleus. The first oscillates between millionths of a second and billions of years. Scientists believe that such nuclei do not age, and for them there is no concept of age.

The law of radioactive decay is based oncalled displacement rules, and they, in turn, are a consequence of the theory of the conservation of the charge by the nucleus and the mass number. It has been established experimentally that the action of the magnetic field acts differently: a) the deflection of the rays occurs as positively charged particles; b) as negative; c) do not show any reaction. From this it follows that radiation is of three kinds.

As many there are also varieties ofdecay process: with the ejection of an electron; the positron; absorption of one electron by a nucleus. It is proved that the nuclei corresponding to their structure lead, survive the decay with emission. The theory was called alpha decay and was formulated by GA Gamov in 1928. The second species was formulated in 1931 by E. Fermi. His investigations have shown that certain types of electrons instead nuclei emit opposite particles - positrons, and it is always accompanied by the emission of a particle with a zero electric charge and rest mass neurine. The simplest example of beta decay is the transition of a neuron into a proton with a time period of 12 minutes.

These theories that consider the laws of radioactivedecay were main until the 1940s of the 19th century, while the Soviet physicists GN Flerov and KA Petrzhak did not discover yet another species, during which the nuclei of uranium spontaneously divide two equal particles. In 1960, two-proton and two-neutron radioactivity was predicted. But to this day this kind of decay of confirmation has not been experimentally obtained and was not found. Only proton radiation was discovered, in which the proton is emitted from the nucleus.

Deal with all these issues quitedifficult, although the very law of radioactive decay is simple. It is not easy to understand its physical meaning and, of course, the exposition of this theory goes far beyond the program of physics as an object in school.