Particles

• Protons and neutrons are particles found in the nucleus of an atom, also known as nucleons.
• Specific Charge is the ratio of charge to mass of an ion or nucleus, represented by the formula charge (C) / mass (kg).
• The specific charge of a Proton is 1.6 ×10^-19 / 9.11×10^-31.
• The specific charge of an Oxygen nucleus is 8 × 1.6×10^-19 (since oxygen has 8 protons) and the mass of an oxygen nucleus is approximately 16 × 1.67×10^-27.
• Specific charge of an Oxygen ion can be calculated by dividing the charge of the ion by its mass, -2 × 1.6×10^-19 / 16×1.67^-27.
• AZX notation is a specific notation used to write atomic symbols, where the top number represents the nucleon number and the lower number represents the proton number.
• An Isotope is defined as atoms of the same element with equal number of protons but different number of neutrons.
• Strong Nuclear Force is the force that keeps the nucleus together by counteracting the electrostatic force of repulsion between protons in the nucleus due to them having the same charge, and it only acts on nucleons.
• The range of the Strong Nuclear Force is attractive at distances of up to 3fm (10^-15) which is the diameter of a small nucleus.
• At 0.5fm> the Strong Nuclear Force becomes repulsive which prevents neutrons and protons being pushed into each other.
• The range of Electrostatic force is infinite.
• The proton is the lightest baryon, which is why it is the most stable baryon.
• Baryons are made up of 3 quarks and their baryon number depends if it is a baryon, anti–baryon or neither.
• The muon decays into an electron.
• The muon is produced in the upper atmosphere by the decay of pions produced by cosmic rays.
• Particle decay by strong or electromagnetic interactions preserves the strangeness quantum number.
• Leptons are particles on which the strong force does not act, as the strong force doesn’t act on fundamental particles.
• The charge of the quarks are 2/3 for up, -1/3 for down and strange and for antiquarks its the opposite. The baryon number for all is 1/3 with antiquarks as -1/3. Strange number is -1 for strange and 1 for antiquark
• All particles are either Bosons or Fermions.
• Kaons are heavier and more unstable than pions, they have a short lifetime and quickly decay into pions.
• Bosons are exchange particles, such as W and Photons, which are indivisible.
• Hadrons are divided into two types: Baryons and Mesons.
• All baryons will eventually decay into a proton.
• Every baryon decays into a Proton because the proton is the most stable baryon, it has the longest half-life of any baryon
• Radioactive decay occurs when heavier particles decay into lighter particles, a decay of the proton would therefore violate the conservation of baryon number.
• If strangeness is not conserved, it indicates a weak interaction, if strangeness is conserved, it indicates a strong or electromagnetic interaction.
• An unstable nuclei is one which has too many of either protons, neutrons or both . This causes the Strong Nuclear Force to not be enough to keep the nucleus stable, therefore these nuclei will decay in order to become stable.
• Alpha Decay is a type of radioactive decay where a nucleus emits an alpha particle, consisting of 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
• Alpha Decay happens when an unstable nuclei has too many protons and neutrons.
• A Radium atom would lose two protons and two neutrons if it decayed by alpha decay and become radon
• Beta-minus Decay is a type of radioactive decay where a neutron turns into a proton, emitting a beta particle (high-energy electron) and an antineutrino.
• Beta-plus Decay is a type of radioactive decay where a proton turns into a neutron, emitting a positron (anti-electron) and an electron neutrino.
• Fundamental Interactions act on Gravity only affects particles with mass, Electromagnetic only affects particles with charge, Weak interaction acts on all particles, and Strong interaction only affects hadrons.
• The exchange particle for the electromagnetic Force is Virtual photon, for Weak interaction it is W-/W+ boson, and for Strong interaction it is Pions.
• Photons are packets of electromagnetic radiation that transfer energy and have no mass.
• Annihilation is when a particle meets its equivalent anti-particle, they both are destroyed and their mass is converted into energy in the form of two gamma ray photons moving in opposite directions in order to conserve momentum.
• The equation for energy is hf = hc / λ.
• The energy of photons is directly proportional to the frequency of electromagnetic radiation.
• The frequency of a photon of a wave length of 590 nm is f = c / λ so 3.00 × 10^8 / 590 × 10^-9 = 5.08x10^14 Hz and the energy of a photon of a wave length of 590 nm is E = hf so 6.63 ×10^-34 × 5.08 ×10^14 = 3.37 ×10^-19 J
• The four fundamental interactions are Gravity, Electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear.