All Questions
Tagged with neutrons nuclear-physics
248
questions
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Why is the neutron cross section of hydrogen larger than that of deuterium?
The scattering neutron cross section of hydrogen is about $20$ b, five times larger than that of deuterium. The capture cross section of hydrogen is around 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of ...
- 1,775
-5
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0
answers
91
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What if proton is heavier than neutron? [closed]
What really happens to the atom if proton gets heavier than a neutron. I've heard that proton emits radiation. Plz explain
0
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1
answer
38
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Neutron Dose Rate to Activity Calculation
This is a completely hypothetical question but say I have an unknown radioactive source inside a steel box, given the dimensions of the volumetric source and the container, the neutron dose rate 1m ...
- 15
1
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0
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78
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Do neutrons have a higher entropy than protons?
Since free neutrons want to undergo beta decay into a proton while protons are relatively stable does that mean that neutrons have higher entropy than protons?
2
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2
answers
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What is known about the isotope distribution of neutronium decay?
Sometimes it is known to happen. For example, neutron star mergers might result in unstable neutronium droplets which lose the enormous pressure that makes them stable. A "nucleon" of $10^{...
- 8,247
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1
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How does pion exchange cause protons and neutrons to be attracted to each other? [duplicate]
I read that neutron and protons are attracted through exchanging pions between each other. However, as far as I understand, they are just exchanging a meson, not any force carriers. What causes them ...
0
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0
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34
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Are there spectra that "prove" that measured energy excesses came purely from deuterium-tritium fusion reactions at the NIF during ignition events?
More energy was produced than was supplied by ultraviolet (UV) lasers (creating x-rays in the gold chamber wall to compress the spherical hollow capsule creating a dense, high-temperature, high-...
- 11
3
votes
1
answer
64
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Where can I find accurate visual representations of atomic nucleus nucleons wave probability functions like I see for electron atomic orbitals?
Note the Wikipedia article for 'Atomic nucleus' was awkward here because first they depict the old concept with protons and neutrons as a bunch of spheres touching each other and in the sub-text ...
- 39
1
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1
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How to use point-kinetics approximation to go from diffusion to point kinetics?
I understand that we get to point kinetics by neglecting spatial dependence in the diffusion equation, but I'm somewhat stuck on the details here. Robert E. Masterson's Introduction to Nuclear Reactor ...
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22
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3
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Does free neutron decay create a hydrogen atom?
When a free neutron decays, it is transformed into a proton, an electron, and a neutrino. Does this electron begin to "orbit" the proton, forming a hydrogen atom? Or does the electron run ...
2
votes
1
answer
71
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Sensitivity of different elements to neutron activation analysis
When I look at Ortec AN34 Experiment 17, I see that the last page shows relative sensitivity to Neutron activation by weight for different elements. For example, the analysis of Fluorine is shown as ...
- 21
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2
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139
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Is a neutron the mixture of a proton and an electron?
Is a neutron a combination of a proton and an electron either by mass and/or charge?
0
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2
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66
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What is the significance of the Strong interaction between a pair of Neutrons?
When we are introduced to the Strong Nuclear force, we are told that it prevents the nucleus from flying apart because of the electric repulsion between protons. But there is no such repulsion between ...
- 41
1
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1
answer
557
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The difference between neutron and proton separation energy of a nucleus
For a given nucleus, why does the value of the neutron separation energy $S_n$ differ from the value of the proton separation energy $S_p$? One of the reasons that is immediately obvious is that the ...
- 11.8k
5
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3
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Can the neutrons in a nuclear reactor be collimated?
N.B. I am not a physicist.
My layman's understanding of a nuclear reactor is essentially that neutrons are doing one of 4 things at any given time in the reaction chamber:
Flying freely around.
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- 461