Particles

& radiation
Name ______________________________
Teacher ______________________________
Particles and radiation facts Fold page here
1) What is the definition of specific charge? 1) The ratio of the charge of an ion or subatomic particle to
2)
3)
Constituents of the atom
Describe the range of the strong nuclear force.
Write a general equation for alpha decay.
its mass (Q/m).
2) There is short-range attraction up to 3 fm, and very short-
4) Write a general equation for beta-minus decay. range repulsion closer than ~0.5 fm.
5) Write a general equation for beta-plus decay. A A −4 4
3) Z X → Z−2Y + 2 α
6) What is a neutrino? A A −0 0
4) Z X → Z+ 1W +−1 β + υe
A A −0 0
5) Z X → Z−1V + +1 β +υ e
7) What happens when a particle meets an anti- 6) A neutral and almost massless fundamental particle that
particle? rarely interacts with matter. It was hypothesised to
account for conservation of energy in beta decay.
8) What is pair production? 7) They annihilate each other; and their total mass is
converted into energy in the form of two gamma ray
9) What is the minimum energy for pair photons.
production? 8) Pair production is the creation of a particle-antiparticle
10) Name four leptons. pair in the presence of a nucleus from a high-energy
11) What are the four fundamental forces? photon.
12) What are the three quark flavours? 9) It is the combined rest energies of the particle and anti-
13) What is a hadron? particle.
14) What is a baryon? Give two examples. 10) Electrons, tauons, muons each with an associated
15) Which is the only stable baryon? neutrino.
16) What is a meson? Give two examples. 11) Gravity, electromagnetic, weak and strong nuclear.
12) Up, down and strange.
17) What four things are conserved in a strong 13) Hadrons are made of quarks and are subject to the strong
interaction? interaction.
18) What can happen to strangeness in a weak 14) A baryon is a type of hadron. They consist of three quarks
interaction? (like protons and neutrons).
19) What are the exchange particles of the 15) The proton.
electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions? 16) A meson is a type of hadron. They consist of a quark and
20) What interaction is responsible for producing and an antiquark. E.g. mesons (which have no strangeness) and
decaying strange particles? kaons (which have strangeness).
21) What is the photoelectric effect? 17) Charge, baryon number, lepton number and strangeness.
18) Strangeness can change by 0, +1, -1 in a weak interaction.
22) What is the threshold frequency? 19) Electromagnetic – photon, weak – W+ and W- bosons,
strong – gluon.
23) If the frequency of radiation is equal to the 20) Producing a strange particle – strong interaction. Decaying
threshold frequency what will be the kinetic a strange particle – weak interaction.
energy of the photoelectrons? 21) Radiation is incident onto the surface of a metal. If it has
24) What evidence is there for particles possessing energy above the work function of the metal then
wave properties & for EM waves possessing photoelectrons are released.
particle properties (wave-particle duality)? 22) The minimum frequency to release a photoelectron from a
25) What evidence do we have for discrete energy metal.
levels in atoms? 23) The kinetic energy of photoelectrons will be zero (all
26) What is meant by “de Broglie” wavelength? energy is used to release a photoelectron).
27) What is thermionic emission?
28) What is fluorescence? 24) Electron diffraction suggests that particles possess wave
properties & the photoelectric effect suggests that EM
waves possess particle properties.
25) Line spectra (e.g. of atomic hydrogen)

26) Corresponding wavelength of a moving particle.

27) A heated filament (cathode) emits fast moving electrons.
28) When a material absorbs short-wavelength (e.g. UV)
radiation and re-emits it at a longer wavelength (e.g.
visible light).
The Nuclear Model
We know from Rutherford’s experiment that the structure of an atom consists of positively charged protons and
neutral neutrons in one place called the nucleus. The nucleus sits Constituent Charge (C) Mass (kg)
in the middle of the atom and has negatively charged electrons Proton 1.6 x 10-19 1.673 x 10-27
orbiting it. At GCSE we used charges and masses for the Neutron 0 1.675 x 10-27
constituents relative to each other, the table above shows the Electron - 1.6 x 10-19
9.1 x 10-31
actual charges and masses.
Almost all of the mass of the atom is in the tiny nucleus which takes up practically no space when compared to the
size of the atom. If we shrunk the Solar System so that the Sun was the size of a gold nucleus the furthest electron
would be twice the distance to Pluto.
If the nucleus was a full stop it would be 25 m to the first electron shell, 100 to the second and 225 to the third.

Notation
A
We can represent an atom of element X in the following way: Z X
Z is the proton number. This is the number of protons in the nucleus. In an uncharged atom the number of
electrons orbiting the nucleus is equal to the number of protons.
In Chemistry it is called the atomic number
A is the nucleon number. This is the total number of nucleons in the nucleus (protons + neutrons) which can be
written as A = Z + N.
In Chemistry it is called the atomic mass number
N is the neutron number. This is the number of neutrons in the nucleus.
Isotopes
Isotopes are different forms of an element. They always have the same number of protons but have a different
number of neutrons. Since they have the same number of protons (and electrons) they behave in the same way
chemically.
35 . 5
Chlorine If we look at Chlorine in the periodic table we see that it is represented by 17 Cl . How can it have 18.5
35
neutrons? It can’t! There are two stable isotopes of Chlorine, 17 Cl which accounts for ~75% and 37
17 Cl which
35 . 5
accounts for ~25%. So the average of a large amount of Chlorine atoms is 17 Cl .

Specific Charge
Specific charge is another title for the charge-mass ratio. This is a measure of the charge per unit mass and is
simply worked out by worked out by dividing the charge of a particle by its mass.
You can think of it as a how much charge (in Coulombs) you get per kilogram of the ‘stuff’.
Constituent Charge (C) Mass (kg) Charge-Mass Ratio (C kg-1) or (C/kg)
Proton 1.6 x 10-19 1.673 x 10-27 1.6 x 10-19 ÷ 1.673 x 10- 9.58 x 107
27

-27
Neutron 0 1.675 x 10 0 ÷ 1.675 x 10- 0
27

Electron (-) 1.6 x 10-19 9.1 x 10-31 1.6 x 10-19 ÷ 9.11 x 10-31 (-) 1.76 x 1011
We can see that the electron has the highest charge-mass ratio and the neutron has the lowest.
Ions
An atom may gain or lose electrons. When this happens the atoms becomes electrically charged (positively or
negatively). We call this an ion.
If the atom gains an electron there are more negative charges than positive, so the atom is a negative ion.
Gaining one electron would mean it has an overall charge of -1, which actually means -1.6 x 10-19C.
Gaining two electrons would mean it has an overall charge of -2, which actually means -3.2 x 10 -19C.
If the atom loses an electron there are more positive charges than negative, so the atom is a positive ion.
Losing one electron would mean it has an overall charge of +1, which actually means +1.6 x 10-19C.
Losing two electrons would mean it has an overall charge of +2, which actually means +3.2 x 10 -19C
 Particles and antiparticles
Antimatter
British Physicist Paul Dirac predicted a particle of equal mass to an electron but of opposite charge (positive).
This particle is called a positron and is the electron’s antiparticle.
Every particles has its own antiparticle. An antiparticle has the same mass as the particle version but has opposite
charge. An antiproton has a negative charge, an antielectron has a positive charge but an antineutron is also
uncharged like the particle version.
American Physicist Carl Anderson observed the positron in a cloud chamber, backing up Dirac’s theory.
Anti particles have opposite Charge, Baryon Number, Lepton Number and Strangeness.
If they are made from quarks the antiparticle is made from antiquarks
Annihilation
Whenever a particle and its antiparticle meet they annihilate each other.
Annihilation is the process by which mass is converted into energy, particle
and antiparticle are transformed into two photons of energy.
Mass and energy are interchangeable and can be converted from one to the
2
other. Einstein linked energy and mass with the equation: E=mc
You can think of it like money; whether you have dollars or pounds you would still have the same amount of
money. So whether you have mass or energy you still have the same amount.
The law of conservation of energy can now be referred to as the conservation of mass-energy.
The total mass-energy before is equal to the total mass-energy after.
Photon
Max Planck had the idea that light could be released in ‘chunks’ or packets of energy. Einstein named these
wave-packets photons. The energy carried by a photon is given by the equation:
hc
E=
E=hf Since c=fλ we can also write this as: λ
How is there anything at all?
When the Big Bang happened matter and antimatter was produced and sent out expanding in all directions. A
short time after this there was an imbalance in the amount of matter and antimatter. Since there was more matter
all the antimatter was annihilated leaving matter to form protons, atoms and everything around us.
Pair Production
Pair production is the opposite process to annihilation, energy is converted
into mass. A single photon of energy is converted into a particle-
antiparticle pair. (This happens to obey the conservation laws)
This can only happen if the photon has enough mass-energy to “pay for
the mass”.
Let us image mass and energy as the same thing, if two particles needed 10 “bits” and the photon had 8 bits there
is not enough for pair production to occur.
If two particles needed 10 bits to make and the photon had 16 bits the particle-antiparticle pair
is made and the left over is converted into their kinetic energy.

If pair production occurs in a magnetic field the particle and antiparticle will move in circles of
opposite direction but only if they are charged.

Pair production can occur spontaneously but must occur near a nucleus which recoils to help
conserve momentum. It can also be made to happen by colliding particles. At CERN protons
are accelerated and fired into each other. If they have enough kinetic energy when they collide particle-
antiparticle pair may be created from the energy.
The following are examples of the reactions that have occurred:
p+ p→ p+ p+ p+ p p+ p→ p+ p+ π + +π − p+ p→ p+ p+n+n
In all we can see that the conservation laws of particle physics are obeyed.

Creation and annihilation

Using E 2
rest = m c

These questions give practice in using Erest = m c 2 to calculate photon energies and masses of particles
created or annihilated.

Energy and mass

The energy of a particle at rest is all due to its mass. This energy is called the rest energy. The rest energy in
joules of a particle with mass m measured in kilograms is given by

Erest = m c 2, where c is the speed of light in metres per second. An energy in joules can be converted to
electron volts by dividing by 1.60 ´ 10–19 J eV–1.

Creation from annihilation

Colliding electrons and positrons

The passage below is from The New Physics, edited by Paul Davies. Read the passage, in which some
phrases or words are highlighted in bold. Write a fuller explanation of what is meant by each highlighted
word or phrase. Questions to guide you are offered, but you can go further if you wish.

Electron–positron annihilation
Electrons colliding with positrons provide one of the most exciting ways of learning about bizarre varieties
of matter…. The key feature is that positrons are the antiparticles of electrons. When matter and
antimatter meet, they can mutually annihilate. The energy associated with their masses has been
unlocked: Erest = mc2 at work.
What is the point of this?
Destroying the electrons and positrons is just the start. The aim is to watch what happens when their energy
‘recongeals’ into new forms of matter and antimatter. It can return whence it came, into electron and
positron, but more interestingly it may produce new forms of matter with their corresponding antimatter.
The hunt is on for those occasions when new forms of matter, not previously seen on Earth, emerge from
the encounter. Exotic forms of matter can occur fleetingly in the heat of stars, and when we temporarily
simulate that heat on Earth, so that we can capture these new varieties in earthbound laboratories.
This continuous destruction of matter and antimatter was common in the brief heat of the primordial Big
Bang. By annihilating electrons and positrons in the laboratory we are reproducing conditions similar to
those that occurred a split second after the Big Bang. We can create matter and antimatter, built for example
of quarks and antiquarks, to order.
(Total 5 mar
 Quarks
Rutherford
Rutherford fired a beam of alpha particles at a thin gold foil. If the atom had no inner structure the alpha particles
would only be deflected by very small angles. Some of the alpha particles were scattered at large angles by the
nuclei of the atoms. From this Rutherford deduced that the atom was mostly empty space with the majority of the
mass situated in the centre. Atoms were made from smaller particles.

Smaller Scattering
In 1968 Physicists conducted a similar experiment to Rutherford’s but they fired
a beam of high energy electrons at nucleons (protons and neutrons). The results
they obtained were very similar to Rutherford’s; some of the electrons were
deflected by large angles. If the nucleons had no inner structure the electrons
would only be deflected by small angles. These results showed that protons and
neutrons were made of three smaller particles, each with a fractional charge.

Quarks
These smaller particles were named quarks and are thought to be fundamental particles (not made of anything
smaller). There are six different quarks and each one has its own antiparticle.
We need to know about the three below as we will be looking at how larger particles are made from different
combinations of quarks and antiquarks.
Charge Baryon Strangeness Anti Charge Baryon Strangeness
Quark
(Q) Number (B) (S) Quark (Q) Number (B) (S)
d -⅓ +⅓ 0 d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 ū -⅔ -⅓ 0
s -⅓ +⅓ -1 s̄ +⅓ -⅓ +1

The other three are Charm, Bottom and Top. You will not be asked about these three
Quark Charge Baryon No. Strangeness Charmness Bottomness Topness
d -⅓ +⅓ 0 0 0 0
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 0 0 0
s -⅓ +⅓ -1 0 0 0
c +⅔ +⅓ 0 +1 0 0
b -⅓ +⅓ 0 0 -1 0
t +⅔ +⅓ 0 0 0 +1

The Lone Quark?

Never! Quarks never appear on their own. The energy required to pull two
quarks apart is so massive that it is enough to make two new particles. A
quark and an antiquark are created, another example of pair production.
A particle called a neutral pion is made from an up quark and an antiup quark.
Moving these apart creates another up quark and an antiup quark. We now
have two pairs of quarks.
Trying to separate two quarks made two more quarks.

Particle Classification
Now that we know that quarks are the smallest building blocks we can
separate all other particles into two groups, those made from quarks and those
that aren’t made from quarks.
Hadrons – Heavy and made from smaller particles
Leptons – Light and not made from smaller particles

Putting quarks together

Three quarks for Muster Mark
The American physicist Murray Gell-Mann gave the name ‘quarks’ to the particles he
proposed as the basic building bricks of other particles. The name refers to a line in the novel
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, who was famed for his word play. The line is: ‘Three
quarks for Muster Mark’. His colleague George Zwieg wanted to call the particles ‘aces’, but
Gell-Mann’s choice won out. In spite of the rhyme suggested by Joyce’s line, the word
‘quark’ is generally pronounced ‘quork’. The word is also German slang for ‘nonsense’ and
the trade name for a type of yoghurt!
These questions ask about how quarks go together to make other particles.
Two kinds of quark
The simplest particles, including all the ones that everyday matter is made of, are built from
two kinds (‘flavours’) of quark: ‘up’ and ‘down’. The most peculiar thing about them is that
their electric charges come in multiples of 1/3 of the charge on an electron. On a scale where
the charge on an electron is –1e, with e = 1.6 × 10–19 C, the charges on the quarks are:
 Up quark u: charge + 2/3 e.
 Down quark d: charge – 1/3 e.

Hadrons
Made from Smaller Stuff
Hadrons, the Greek for ‘heavy’ are not fundamental particles they are all made from smaller particles, quarks.
The properties of a hadron are due to the combined properties of the quarks that it is made from.
There are two categories of Hadrons: Baryons and Mesons.
Baryons Made from three quarks
Charge Baryon Strangeness Neutro Charge Baryon Strangeness
Proton
(Q) Number (B) (S) n (Q) Number (B) (S)
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 d -⅓ +⅓ 0
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 u +⅔ +⅓ 0
d -⅓ +⅓ 0 d -⅓ +⅓ 0
p +1 +1 0 n 0 +1 0
The proton is the only stable hadron, all others eventually decay into a proton.
Mesons Made from a quark and an antiquark
Pion Charge Baryon Strangeness Pion Charge Baryon Strangeness
Plus (Q) Number (B) (S) Minus (Q) Number (B) (S)
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 ū -⅔ -⅓ 0
d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0 d -⅓ +⅓ 0
π+ +1 0 0 π- -1 0 0

Pion Charge Baryon Strangeness Pion Charge Baryon Strangeness

Zero (Q) Number (B) (S) Zero (Q) Number (B) (S)
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 d -⅓ +⅓ 0
ū -⅔ -⅓ 0 d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0
π0 0 0 0 π0 0 0 0

Kaon Charge Baryon Strangeness Kaon Charge Baryon Strangeness

Plus (Q) Number (B) (S) Minus (Q) Number (B) (S)
u +⅔ +⅓ 0 ū -⅔ -⅓ 0
s̄ +⅓ -⅓ +1 s -⅓ +⅓ -1
K+ +1 0 +1 K- -1 0 -1

Kaon Charge Baryon Strangeness AntiKaon Charge Baryon Strangeness

Zero (Q) Number (B) (S) Zero (Q) Number (B) (S)
d -⅓ +⅓ 0 d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0
s̄ +⅓ -⅓ +1 s -⅓ +⅓ -1
K0 0 0 +1 K̄ 0 0 0 -1

Anti Hadrons
Anti hadrons are made from the opposite quarks as their Hadron counterparts, for example a proton is made from
the quark combination uud and an antiproton is made from the combination ūūd̄
We can see that a π+ and a π- are particle and antiparticle of each other.
Anti
Anti Charge Baryon Strangeness Neutro Charge Baryon Strangeness
Proton (Q) Number (B) (S) n (Q) Number (B) (S)
ū -⅔ -⅓ 0 d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0
ū -⅔ -⅓ 0 ū -⅔ -⅓ 0
d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0 d̄ +⅓ -⅓ 0
p̄̄ -1 -1 0 n̄ 0 -1 0
You need to know all the quark combination shown on this page as they may ask you to recite any of them.

Making mesons
Other, lighter ‘middle-weight’ particles called mesons can be made from pairs of quarks. But they have to be
made from a special combination: a quark and an antiquark. There are now four particles to play with:
 Up quark u: charge +2/3 e
 Down quark d: charge –1/3 e.
 Antiup quark u : charge –2/3 e.
  Antidown quarku : charge + 1/3 e.
Strange quarks
An early classification of strange baryons by Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne’emen gave this arrangement,
called the baryon decuplet. The diagonal rows show baryons of the same charge. The Δ0 and Δ+ particles
are more massive versions of the neutron and proton respectively

- 0 + ++ strangeness 0

- 0 + strangeness -1

- 0 strangeness -2

- strangeness -3

The Ω- was, in fact, predicted by Gell-mann from a gap in this pattern in much the same way as Mendeleyev
predicted missing elements from gaps in his table. The subsequent discovery of the Ω- confirmed that
particle physicists were on the right track with this classification, which led Gell-mann and Zweig to the
quark theory.

The strange quark s is a more massive version of the down quark d, and has the same charge (-e/3).
The presence of a strange quark gives a baryon or meson a strangeness of -1.

C
The magnitude of the charge on every quark is

D A particle consisting of a single quark has not been observed.

(Total 1 mark)

Leptons
Fundamental Particles
A fundamental particle is a particle which is not made of anything smaller. Baryons and Mesons are made from
quarks so they are not fundamental, but quarks themselves are. The only other known fundamental particles are
Bosons and Leptons.
Leptons
Leptons are a family of particles that are much lighter than Baryons and Mesons and are not subject to the strong
interaction. There are six leptons in total, three of them are charged and three are uncharged.
The charged particles are electrons, muons and tauons. The muon and tauon are similar to the electron but bigger.
The muon is roughly 200 times bigger and the tauon is 3500 times bigger (twice the size of a proton).
Each of the charged leptons has its own neutrino. If a decay involves a neutrino and a muon, it will be a muon
neutrino, not a tauon neutrino or electron neutrino.
The neutrino is a chargeless, almost massless particle. It isn’t affected by the strong interaction or EM force and
barely by gravity. It is almost impossible to detect.

Lepton
Charge Charge Lepton
Lepton Number Anti Lepton
(Q) (Q) Number (L)
(L)
Electron e- -1 +1 Anti Electron e+ +1 -1
Electron Neutrino νe 0 +1 Anti Electron Neutrino ν̄e 0 -1
Muon μ- -1 +1 Anti Muon μ+ +1 -1
Muon Neutrino νμ 0 +1 Anti Muon Neutrino ν̄μ 0 -1
Tauon τ- -1 +1 Anti Tauon τ+ +1 -1
Tauon Neutrino ντ 0 +1 Anti Tauon Neutrino ν̄τ 0 -1

Conservation Laws
For a particle interaction to occur the following laws must be obeyed, if either is violated the reaction will never
be observed (will never happen):
Charge: Must be conserved (same total value before as the total value after)
Baryon Number: Must be conserved
Lepton Number: Must be conserved
Strangeness: Conserved in EM and Strong Interaction. Doesn’t have to be conserved in Weak Interaction
Examples
In pair production a photon of energy is converted into a particle and its antiparticle
γ → e- + e+
Q 0 → -1 + +1 0 → 0 Conserved
B 0 → 0 + 0 0 → 0 Conserved
L 0 → +1 + -1 0 → 0 Conserved
S 0 → 0 + 0 0 → 0 Conserved
Let us look at beta plus decay as we knew it at GCSE. A neutron decays into a proton and releases an electron.
n → p + e-
Q 0 → +1 + -1 0 → 0 Conserved
B +1 → +1 + 0 +1 → +1 Conserved
L 0 → 0 + +1 0 → +1 Not Conserved
S 0 → 0 + 0 0 → 0 Conserved
This contributed to the search for and discovery of the neutrino.
Number Reminders
There may be a clue to the charge of a particle; π+, K+ and e+ have a positive charge.
It will only have a baryon number if it IS a baryon. Mesons and Leptons have a Baryon Number of zero.
It will only have a lepton number if it IS a lepton. Baryons and Mesons have a Lepton Number of zero.
It will only have a strangeness if it is made from a strange quark. Leptons have a strangeness of zero.

Conservation rules: charge Q

You need to know that:

Particle reactions are possible if certain quantities are conserved. These quantities are:

• charge ● lepton number

• baryon number ● strangeness
 Conservation rules: B
baryon number

You need to know that:

Particle reactions are possible if certain quantities are conserved. These quantities are:

• charge ● lepton number

• baryon number ● strangeness
Key fact: In any particle reaction, the total baryon number remains the same.
The baryon numbers of some particles:

Particle Baryon number, B

Baryons (e.g. proton, neutron, sigma) +1
Baryon antiparticle (e.g. antiproton) -1
Mesons (e.g. pion, kaon) 0
Leptons (e.g. electron, positron) 0

Conservation rules: lepton number L

It is necessary to take into account lepton number when considering which particle reactions involving
leptons might be possible. To do this, the lepton numbers of the three lepton families must be treated
separately.

E.g. the decay of a muon

Lepton numbers: lepton +1

 Conservation of Q, B, L and S
You need to know that: Some assorted hadrons

Particle reactions are possible if certain

quantities are conserved. These quantities
are:

• charge
• baryon number
• lepton number
• strangeness (only conserved in strong
interactions).

Forces and exchange particles

p _____________________________________________________________
The Four Interactions
There are four forces in the universe, some you will have come across already and some will be new:
The electromagnetic interaction causes an attractive or repulsive force between charges.
The gravitational interaction causes an attractive force between masses.
The strong nuclear interaction causes an attractive (or repulsive) force between quarks (and so hadrons).
The weak nuclear interaction does not cause a physical force, it makes particles decay. ‘Weak’ means there is a
low probability that it will happen.
Interaction/Force Range Relative Strength
-15
Strong Nuclear ~10 m 1 (1)
Electromagnetic ∞ ~10–2 (0.01)
 Weak Nuclear ~10-18m ~10–7 (0.0000001)
–36
Gravitational ∞ ~10 (0.000000000000000000000000000000000001)

Exchange Particles
In 1935 Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa put forward the idea that the interactions/forces between two particles
were caused by ‘virtual particles’ being exchanged between the two particles.
He was working on the strong nuclear force which keeps protons and neutrons together and theorised that they
were exchanging a particle back and forth that ‘carried’ the force and kept them together. This is true of all the
fundamental interactions.
The general term for exchange particles is bosons and they are fundamental particles like quarks and leptons.
Ice Skating Analogy
Imagine two people on ice skates that will represent the two bodies experiencing a force.
If A throws a bowling ball to B, A slides back when they release it and B moves back when they catch it.
Repeatedly throwing the ball back and forth moves A and B away from each other, the force causes repulsion.
The analogy falls a little short when thinking of attraction, but bear with it.
Now imagine that A and B are exchanging a boomerang (bear with it), throwing it behind them pushes A towards
B, B catches it from behind and moves towards A. The force causes attraction.

Which Particle for What Force

Each of the interactions/forces has its own exchange particles.
Interaction/Force Exchange Particle What is acts upon
Strong Nuclear Gluons between quarks Pions between Baryons Nucleons (Hadrons)
Electromagnetic Virtual Photon Charged particles
+ – 0
Weak Nuclear W W Z All particles
Gravitational Graviton Particles with masses

Borrowing Energy to Make Particles

The exchange particles are made from ‘borrowed’ energy, borrowed from where? From nowhere! Yukawa used
the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to establish that a particle of mass-energy ΔE could exist for a time Δt as
long as ΔE . Δt≤h where h is Planck’s constant. This means that a heavy particle can only exist for a short time
while a lighter particle may exist for longer.
h is Planck’s Constant, h = 6.63 x 10-34 J s.
In 1947 the exchange particle of the strong nuclear interaction were observed in a cloud chamber.
Lending Money Analogy
Think of making exchange particles in terms of lending somebody some money.
If you lend somebody £50 you would want it paid back fairly soon.

The weak interaction

If you lend somebody 50p you would let them have it for longer before paying you back
Alpha Decay
When a nucleus decays in this way an alpha particle (a helium nucleus) is ejected from the nucleus.
A
Z X → A−4 4
Z−2 Y + 2 α or
A A−4 4
Z X → Z−2 Y + 2 He
All the emitted alpha particles travelled at the same speed, meaning they had the same amount of energy. The law
of conservation of mass-energy is met, the energy of the nucleus before the decay is the same as the energy of the
nucleus and alpha particle after the decay.
Alpha decay is NOT due to the weak interaction but Beta decay IS

Beta Decay and the Neutrino

In beta decay a neutron in the nucleus changes to a proton and releases a beta particle (an electron).
The problem with beta decay was that the electrons had a range of energies so the law of conservation of mass-
energy is violated, energy disappears. There must be another particle being made with zero mass but variable
speeds, the neutrino.
 −
We can also see from the particle conservation laws that this is a forbidden interaction: n→ p+ e
Charge Q: 0→ +1–1 0→ 0 Charge is conserved
Baryon Number →
B: +1 +1+0 →
1 1 Baryon number is conserved
Lepton Number L: 0→ 0+1 0→ 1 Lepton number is NOT conserved
Beta Minus (β–) Decay
In neutron rich nuclei a neutron may decay into a proton, electron and an anti electron neutrino.
n→ p+ e− + ν e
Charge Q: 0→ +1–1+0 0→ 0 Charge is conserved
Baryon Number B: +1→ +1+0+0 1→ 1 Baryon number is conserved
Lepton Number L: 0→ 0+1–1 0→ 0 Lepton number is conserved

In terms of quarks beta minus decay looks like this:

dud →uud +e− +ν e which simplifies to:
d →u+ e− + ν e
Charge Q: – ⅓→ +⅔–1+0 – ⅓→ – ⅓ Charge is conserved
Baryon Number B: +⅓→ +⅓+0+0 ⅓→ ⅓ Baryon number is conserved
Lepton Number L: 0→ 0+1–1 0→ 0 Lepton number is conserved
Beta Plus (β+) Decay
In proton rich nuclei a proton may decay into a neutron, positron and an electron neutrino.
p→n+ e+ +ν e
Charge Q: +1→ 0+1+0 1→ 1 Charge is conserved
Baryon Number B: +1→ +1+0+0 1→ 1 Baryon number is conserved
Lepton Number L: 0→ 0–1+1 0→ 0 Lepton number is conserved

+
In terms of quarks beta plus decay looks like this: uud →dud +e + ν e which simplifies to:
u→ d + e+ +ν e
Charge Q: +⅔→ –⅓+1+0 ⅔→ ⅔ Charge is conserved
Baryon Number B: +⅓→ +⅓+0+0 ⅓→ ⅓ Baryon number is conserved
Lepton Number L: 0→ 0–1+1 0→ 0 Lepton number is conserved

Strangeness
The weak interaction is the only interaction that causes a quark to change into a different type of quark. In beta
decay up quarks and down quarks are changed into one another. In some reactions an up or down quark can
change into a strange quark meaning strangeness is not conserved.
During the weak interaction there can be a change in strangeness of ±1

The strong interaction

The Strong Interaction
The strong nuclear force acts between quarks. Since Hadrons are the only particles made of
quarks only they experience the strong nuclear force.
In both Baryons and Mesons the quarks are attracted to each other by exchanging virtual
particles called ‘gluons’.

On a larger scale the strong nuclear force acts between the Hadrons
themselves, keeping them together. A pi-meson or pion (π) is exchanged
between the hadrons. This is called the residual strong nuclear force.

Force Graphs
Neutron-Neutron or Neutron-Proton
 Here is the graph of how the force varies between two neutrons or a proton and a neutron as the distance between
them is increased.
We can see that the force is very strongly repulsive at separations of less than 0.7 fm ( x 10 –15 m). This prevents
all the nucleons from crushing into each other.
Above this separation the force is strongly attractive with a peak around 1.3 fm. When the nucleons are separated
by more than 5 fm they no longer experience the SNF.
Proton-Proton
The force-separation graphs for two protons is different. They both attract each other due to the SNF but they
also repel each other due to the electromagnetic force which causes two like charges to repel.

Graph A Graph B Graph C

Graph A shows how the strong nuclear force varies with the separation of the protons
Graph B shows how the electromagnetic force varies with the separation of the protons
Graph C shows the resultant of these two forces: repulsive at separations less than 0.7 fm, attractive up to 2 fm
when the force becomes repulsive again.

Neutrons – Nuclear Cement

In the lighter elements the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus is the same. As the nucleus gets bigger
more neutrons are needed to keep it together.

Adding another proton means that

all the other nucleons feel the SNF
attraction. It also means that all the
other protons feel the EM
repulsion.

Adding another neutron adds to

the SNF attraction between the
nucleons but, since it is uncharged,
it does not contribute to the EM
repulsion.

Feynman diagrams
Feynman Diagrams
An American Physicist called Richard Feynman came up with a way of visualising forces and exchange particles.
Below are some examples of how Feynman diagrams can represent particle interactions.
The most important things to note when dealing with Feynman diagrams are the arrows and the exchange
particles, the lines do not show us the path that the particles take only which come in and which go out.
 The arrows tell us which particles are present before the interaction and which are present after the interaction.
The wave represents the interaction taking place with the appropriate exchange particle labelled.
Examples

Diagram 1 represents the strong interaction. A proton and neutron are attracted together by the exchange of a
neutral pion.
Diagram 2 represents the electromagnetic interaction. Two electrons repel each other by the exchange of a virtual
photon.
Diagram 3 represents beta minus decay. A neutron decays due to the weak interaction into a proton, an electron
and an anti electron neutrino
Diagram 4 represents beta plus decay. A proton decays into a neutron, a positron and an electron neutrino.

Diagram 5 represents electron capture. A proton captures an electron and becomes a neutron and an electron
neutrino.
Diagram 6 represents a neutrino-neutron collision. A neutron absorbs a neutrino and forms a proton and an
electron.
Diagram 7 represents an antineutrino-proton collision. A proton absorbs an antineutrino and emits a neutron and
an electron.
Diagram 8 represents an electron-proton collision. They collide and emit a neutron and an electron neutrino.
Getting the Exchange Particle
The aspect of Feynman diagrams that students often struggle with is labelling the exchange particle and the
direction to draw it. Look at what you start with:
If it is positive and becomes neutral you can think of it as throwing away its positive charge so the boson will be
positive. This is the case in electron capture.
If it is positive and becomes neutral you can think of it as gaining negative to neutralise it so the boson will be
negative. This is the case in electron-proton collisions.
If it is neutral and becomes positive we can think of it either as gaining positive (W+ boson) or losing negative
(W– boson in the opposite direction).

The photoelectric effect

Work out where the charge is going and label it.
Observations
When light fell onto a metal plate it released electrons from the surface straight away. Increasing the intensity
increased the number of electrons emitted. If the frequency of the light was lowered, no electrons were emitted at
all. Increasing the intensity and giving it more time did nothing, no electrons were emitted.
 If Light was a Wave…
Increasing the intensity would increase the energy of the light. The energy from the light would be evenly spread
over the metal and each electron would be given a small amount of energy. Eventually the electron would have
enough energy to be removed from the metal.
Photon
Max Planck had the idea that light could be released in ‘chunks’ or packets of energy. Einstein named these
wave-packets photons. The energy carried by a photon is given by the equation:
hc
E=
E=hf Since c=fλ we can also write this as: λ
Explaining the Photoelectric Effect
Einstein suggested that one photon collides with one electron in the metal, giving it enough energy to be removed
from the metal and then fly off somewhere. Some of the energy of the photon is used to break the bonds holding
the electron in the metal and the rest of the energy is used by the electron to move away (kinetic energy). He
represented this with the equation:
hf =φ+ E K
hf represents the energy of the photon,  is the work function and EK is the kinetic energy.
Work Function, 
The work function is the amount of energy the electron requires to be completely removed from the surface of
the metal. This is the energy just to remove it, not to move away.
Threshold Frequency, f0
The threshold frequency is the minimum frequency that would release an electron from the surface of a metal,
any less and nothing will happen.
Since
hf =φ+ E K , the minimum frequency releases an electron that is not moving, so E = 0
K

φ
hf 0 =φ which can be rearranged to give: f 0 = h
Increasing the intensity increases the number of photons the light sources gives out each second.
If the photon has less energy than the work function an electron can not be removed. Increasing the intensity just
sends out more photons, all of which would still not have enough energy to release an electron.
Graph
If we plot a graph of the kinetic energy of the electrons against frequency
we get a graph that looks like this:
Start with
hf =φ+ E K and transform into y=mx+c .
EK is the y-axis and f is the x- axis.
This makes the equation become: KE =hf −φ
So the gradient represents Planck’s constant
and the y-intercept represents (–) the work function.
Nightclub Analogy
We can think of the photoelectric effect in terms of a full nightclub; let the people going into the club represent
the photons, the people leaving the club represent the electrons and money represent the energy.
The club is full so it is one in and one out. The work function equals the entrance fee and is £5:
If you have £3 you don’t have enough to get in so noone is kicked out.
If 50 people arrive with £3 no one has enough, so one gets in and noone is kicked out.
If you have £5 you have enough to get in so someone is kicked out, but you have no money for drinks.
If 50 people arrive with £5 you all get in so 50 people are kicked out, but you have no money for drinks.
If you have £20 you have enough to get in so someone is kicked out and you have £15 to spend on drinks.

Excitation, ionisation and energy levels

If 50 people arrive with £20 you all get in so 50 people are kicked out and you have £15 each to spend on drinks.
The Electronvolt, eV
The Joule is too big use on an atomic and nuclear scale so we will now use the electronvolt, represented by eV.
One electronvolt is equal to the energy gained by an electron of charge e, when it is accelerated through a
potential difference of 1 volt. 1eV = 1.6 x 10-19J 1J = 6.25 x 1018eV
eV  J multiply by e J  eV divide by e
The Problem with Atoms
Rutherford’s nuclear model of the atom leaves us with a problem: a
charged particle emits radiation when it accelerates. This would mean
that the electrons would fall into the nucleus.
Bohr to the Rescue
Niels Bohr solved this problem by suggesting that the electrons could
only orbit the nucleus in certain ‘allowed’ energy levels. He suggested
that an electron may only transfer energy when it moves from one
energy level to another. A change from one level to another is called a
‘transition’.
To move up and energy level the electron must gain the
exact amount of energy to make the transition.
It can do this by another electron colliding with it or
by absorbing a photon of the exact energy.
When moving down a level the electron must lose the
exact amount of energy when making the transition.
It releases this energy as a photon of energy equal to
the energy it loses.
ΔE=hf =E1 −E 2
E1 is the energy of the level the electron starts at and E2 is
the energy of the level the electron ends at
Excitation
When an electron gains the exact amount of energy to move up one or more energy levels
De-excitation
When an electron gives out the exact amount of energy to move back down to its original energy level
Ionisation
An electron can gain enough energy to be completely removed from the atom.
The ground state and the energy levels leading up to ionisation have negative values of energy, this is because
they are compared to the ionisation level. Remember that energy must be given to the electrons to move up a
level and is lost (or given out) when it moves down a level.
Line Spectra
Atoms of the same element have same energy levels. Each
transition releases a photon with a set amount of energy meaning
the frequency and wavelength are also set. The wavelength of light
is responsible for colour it is. We can analyse the light by using a
diffraction grating to separate light into the colours that makes it
up, called its line spectra. Each element has its own line spectra
like a barcode.
To the above right are the line
spectra of Hydrogen and
Helium.
We can calculate the energy difference that created the colour.
If we know the energy differences for each element we can work out which
element is responsible for the light and hence deduce which elements are
present.
We can see that there are 6 possible transitions in the diagram to the left, A
to F.
D has an energy difference of 1.9 eV or 3.04 x 10-19 J which corresponds to a

Wave-particle duality
frequency of 4.59 x 1014 Hz and a wavelength of 654 nm – red.
De Broglie
In 1923 Louis de Broglie put forward the idea that ‘all particles have a wave nature’ meaning that particles can
behave like waves.
This doesn’t sound too far fetched after Einstein proved that a wave can behave like a particle.
 De Broglie said that all particles could have a wavelength. A particle of mass, m, that is travelling at velocity, v,
would have a wavelength given by:
h h
λ= λ=
mv which is sometime written as p where p is momentum
This wavelength is called the de Broglie wavelength. The modern view is that the de Broglie wavelength is
linked to the probability of finding the particle at a certain point in space.
De Broglie wavelength is measured in metres, m
Electron Diffraction
Two years after de Broglie came up with his
particle wavelengths and idea that electrons
could diffract, Davisson and Germer proved
this to happen.
They fired electrons into a crystal structure
which acted as a diffraction grating. This
produced areas of electrons and no electrons
on the screen behind it, just like the pattern
you get when light diffracts.
Electron Wavelength
We can calculate the de Broglie wavelength
of an electron from the potential difference, V, that accelerated it.
Change in electric potential energy gained = eV
1
eV = mv 2
This is equal to the kinetic energy of the electron 2

The velocity is therefore given by:

h
√2 eV
m
=v
h
λ= λ=
We can substitute this into mv to get: √2 meV
Sand Analogy
If we compare a double slit electron diffraction to sand falling from containers we can see how crazy electron
diffraction is. Imagine two holes about 30cm apart that sand is
dropping from. We would expect to find a maximum amount of
sand under each hole, right? This is not what we find! We find a
maximum in between the two holes. The electrons are acting
like a wave.
Wave-Particle Duality
Wave-particle duality means that waves sometimes behave like particles and particles sometimes behave like
waves. Some examples of these are shown below:
Light as a Wave
Diffraction, interference, polarisation and refraction all prove that light is a wave.
Light as a Particle
We have seen that the photoelectric effect shows that light can behave as a particle called a photon.
Electron as a Particle
The deflection by an electromagnetic field and collisions with other particles show its particle nature.
Electron as a Wave
Electron diffraction proves that a particle can show wave behaviour .

Acknowledgements:
The notes in this booklet come from TES user dwyernathaniel. The original notes can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-level-physics-notes-6337841
Questions on specific charge and isotopes come from TES user quentus75. The original questions can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/specific-charge-and-isotopes-worksheet-aqa-a-level-physics-11969305
Questions in the particles and antiparticles section comes from the IoP TAP project. The original questions can be
found here:
https://spark.iop.org/episode-535-particle-reactions#gref
Questions in the quarks and hadrons sections come from the IoP TAP project. The original questions can be found
here:
https://spark.iop.org/episode-540-quarks-and-standard-model
Questions in the leptons section comes from TES user Cnut_Hardresen. The original resources can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/conservation-rules-6447074
Questions in the photoelectric effect section come from the IoP TAP project. The original resources can be found
here:
https://spark.iop.org/episode-502-photoelectric-effect
Questions in the wave particle duality section come from Bernard Rand’s resources. The original resources can be
found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-2qNVLwGzJ_7AjQK9N0z4BQBIRmSHAwG