Nuclear energy reference point

Table 111-1 Selected thermodynamic data for selenium compounds and complexes. All ionic species listed in this table are aqueous species. Unless noted otherwise, all data refer to the reference temperature of 298.15 K and to the standard state, i.e., a pressure of 0.1 MPa and, for aqueous species, infinite dilution (/ = 0). The uncertainties listed below each value represent total uncertainties and correspond in principle to the statistically defined 95% confidence interval. Values obtained from internal calculation, cf. footnotes (a) and (b), are rounded at the third digit after the decimal point and may therefore not be exactly identical to those given in Part V. Systematically, all the values are presented with three digits after the decimal point, regardless of the significance of these digits. The data presented in this table are available on computer media from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.

The term Lamb shift of a single atomic level usually refers to the difference between the Dirac energy for point-like nuclei and its observable value shifted by nuclear and QED effects. Nuclear effects include energy shifts due to static nuclear properties such as the size and shape of the nuclear charge density distribution and due to nuclear dynamics, i.e. recoil correction and nuclear polarization. To a zeroth approximation, the energy levels of a hydrogen-like atom are determined by the Dirac equation. For point-like nuclei the eigenvalues of the Dirac equation can be found analytically. In the case of extended nuclei, this equation can be solved either numerically or by means of successive analytical approximation (see Rose 1961 Shabaev 1993). 

In a chemical reaction the same elements and the same numbers of atoms are always on both sides of the equation. This provides a consistent reference which allows the energy change in the reaction to be interpreted in terms of the chemical or physical changes that have occurred. In a nuclear reaction the same elements are not always on both sides of the equation and no common reference point exists. 

To analyze the recorded spectra, the spectrometer needs to be calibrated. The three main calibration parameters are the velocity scale, the center point of the spectrum and the nonlinearity of the velocity/time profile of the oscillation compared to a standard reference. The calibration is performed using a spectrum recorded from an a-iron foil at room temperature using the well defined line positions of the sextet from a-iron, which occur at 5.312mms , 3.076mms , and 0.840mms The center of this a-iron spectrum at room temperature is taken as the reference point (0.0 nun s ) for isomer shift values of sample spectra. The typical Mossbauer spectrum of the 14.4 keV transition of Fe in natural iron (Fig. 4.10) represents a simple example of pure nuclear Zeeman effect. Because of the cubic symmetry of the iron lattice, there is no quadrupole shift of the nuclear energy levels. The relative intensities of the six magnetic dipole transitions are... 

That is, the sum of the electronic energy and nuclear repulsion energy of the molecule at the specified nuclear configuration. This quantity is commonly referred to as the total energy. However, more complete and accurate energy predictions require a thermal or zero-point energy correction (see Chapter 4, p. 68). 

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