Beta-minus decay

Neutrino (V)—A neutral particle of infinitesimally small rest mass emitted during beta plus or beta minus decay. This particle accounts for conservation of energy in beta plus and beta minus decays. It plays no role in damage from radiation. 

The pure metal of berkelium does not exist in nature and has never been directly artificially produced, although the first isotope of berkelium produced was berkelium-243. It was artificially formed by bombarding americium-241 with the nuclei of helium (alpha particles), as follows " Am+lalpha particle = 2 protons + 2 neutron)—> Bk. (Note Two protons as well as two neutrons are found in the nucleus of helium, and thus the two protons changed the atomic number of americium [ jAm] to berkelium [j Bk].) Today a different process is used to produce berkelium in small amounts, as follows Cm+(5n = neutrons X = gamma rays) —> (becomes) —> Bk + P- = (beta-minus decay). 

Beta-minus Beta-minus decay essentially mirrors beta-plus decay. A neutron converts into a proton, emitting an electron and an anftneutrino (which has the same symbol as a neutrino except for the line on top). Particle and antiparticle pairs such as neutrinos and antineutrinos are a complicated physics topic, so we ll keep it basic here by saying that a neutrino and an antineutrino would annihilate one another if they ever touched, but they re otherwise very similar. Again, the mass number remains the same after decay because the number of nucleons remains the same. However, the atomic number increases by 1 because the number of protons increases by 1 ... 

Beta-Minus Decay. Beta-minus decay is the radioactive decay process in which a nucleus emits an electron (also known as a beta particle, j3, or e ) and an antineutrino (v), which is a very weakly interacting particle with an extremely small mass. By weakly interacting, we mean neutrinos are so aloof from ordinary... 

Beta-Minus Decay 370 Positron Decay 3 72 Electron Capture Decay 3 72 Gamma Ray Emission 373... 

Radioactive decay. (In a nuclear reactor, there are two primary modes of decay, beta minus decay and alpha decay. For the process of beta minus decay, a nucleus of mass number A and atomic number Z is transformed into another nucleus of mass number A but with atomic number Z + 1. Alpha decay, on the other hand, results in the loss of a helium nucleus leaving the original nucleus four A units and two Z units lighter.)... 

Note that the nuclear reaction is balanced, as previously described. It turns out that there are two types of beta decay, beta-plus decay (which produces a positron) and beta-minus decay (which produces an ordinary electron). Note, however, that this electron, although indistinguishable from any other electron, is the product of the decay, or the falling apart, of a nucleus. Beta-minus and beta-plus decays are denoted by placing a )8 or a over the arrow. Tritium decays by beta-minus decay, as shown in Equation (10.16) ... 

The half-lives of uranium-238 with respect to alpha decay, tritium with respect to beta-minus decay, and boron-8 with respect to beta-plus decay are 4.51 X 10 (4.51 billion) years, 12.3 years, and 0.77 years, respectively. 

Lead is the most abundant of the heavy metals because it is the end product of three different radioactive series. Starting from uranium-238, uranium-235, and thorium-232, three different lead isotopes are ultimately produced by a series of alpha and beta-minus decays. The overall reactions for these series are shown in Equations (15.11) through (15.13) ... 

Perbromic acid was actually first prepared by the beta-minus decay of selenate (containing selenium-83) to perbromate. Write an equation for this process. 

Neutrinos are created in nuclear processes and in various elementary particle interactions. The most familiar process is nuclear beta-decay, in which an unstable nucleus simultaneously emits an electron (beta-ray) and a neutrino. This process may be visualized as an unstable nucleus radiating its energy by creating a pair of leptons a neutrino and an electron. It is referred to as beta-minus decay when an electron (e ) is emitted with an antineutrino Ve) or beta-plus decay when a positron (e+) is emitted with a neutrino (Vg). In another beta-decay process, called electron capture, one of the orbital electrons in an atom is absorbed by the nucleus and a neutrino is emitted. Examples of these processes are... 

Reaction (4) was used by Reines and Cowan in the first experiment to detect antineutrinos. The antineutrinos originated from the beta-minus decay of fission products in a nuclear reactor. The same reaction was also used in detectors to observe antineutrinos fl om a collapsing star. Reaction (4) is the inverse of the beta-decay of the neutron,... 

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