Isobaric
decay
Isobaric
decay is the nuclear transmutation of a nuclei without the change in mass, an
isobars are nuclides with same atomic mass but different proton number, when a
nuclei change from one atom to another without change in mass , the nuclide is
said to undergo an isobaric decay.
Isobaric
decay is related to the stability of atoms, one of the factor that determine
the stability of atoms are the ratio of neutron to proton in atom, if the
ration of proton to neutron n/p, is close to unity the atom will be stable, but
if the ratio of proton to neutron very low
or very high the nuclei will into a more stable nuclei.
What cause
neutron decay? A neutron has three
quarks, two down quarks and one up quarks , for neutron decay to occur, one of
the down quarks is converted to an up quark
by the emission of boson which subsequently decay into electron and
antineutrino.
There
are three type of isobaric decay, namely
1. Beta decay
2. Electron capture
Electron capture or positron emission occur when the ratio n/p is very low,
it occur when a proton reach nuclei absorb an electron from its inner k or l
shell. This results to change of a nuclear proton to neutron and an emission of
electron neutrino. The parent nuclei capture of its own electron and not an incoming electron, hence the name
electron capture. One characteristic to detect electron capture is that the
number of proton of the parent nuclei is more than that of the daughter nuclei
and this also shows that proton has being “change” to neutron.
Beta emission: beta decay a nuclear
process that involve loss of electron, in
this decay neutrons is change to proton, the proton number of the parent
nuclei is less than that of the daughter nuclei, the process involve the emission
of beta particle (e-) and an
antineutrino.
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