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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery of the neutron | 5/7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_the_neutron | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:28:49.483017+00:00 | kb-cron |
Two years later, Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot in Paris showed that if this unknown radiation fell on paraffin wax, or any other hydrogen-containing compound, it ejected protons of very high energy (5 MeV). This observation was not in itself inconsistent with the assumed gamma ray nature of the new radiation, but that interpretation (Compton scattering) had a logical problem. From energy and momentum considerations, a gamma ray would have to have impossibly high energy (50 MeV) to scatter a massive proton. In Rome, the young physicist Ettore Majorana declared that the manner in which the new radiation interacted with protons required a neutral particle as heavy as a proton, but declined to publish his result despite the encouragement of Enrico Fermi. On hearing of the Paris results, Rutherford and James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory also did not believe the gamma ray hypothesis since it failed to conserve energy. Assisted by Norman Feather, Chadwick quickly performed a series of experiments showing that the gamma ray hypothesis was untenable. The previous year, Chadwick, J.E.R. Constable, and E.C. Pollard had already conducted experiments on disintegrating light elements using alpha radiation from polonium. They had also developed more accurate and efficient methods for detecting, counting, and recording the ejected protons. Chadwick repeated the creation of the radiation using beryllium to absorb the alpha particles: 9Be + 4He (α) → 12C + 1n. Following the Paris experiment, he aimed the radiation at paraffin wax, a hydrocarbon high in hydrogen content, hence offering a target dense with protons. As in the Paris experiment, the radiation energetically scattered some of the protons. Chadwick measured the range of these protons and also measured how the new radiation impacted the atoms of various gases. Measurements of the recoil energy showed that the mass of the radiation particles must be similar to the mass of the proton: the new radiation could not consist of gamma rays. Uncharged particles with about the same mass to the proton matched the properties Rutherford described in 1920 and which had later been called neutrons. Chadwick won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935 for this discovery. The year 1932 was later referred to as the "annus mirabilis" for nuclear physics in the Cavendish Laboratory, with discoveries of the neutron, artificial nuclear disintegration by the Cockcroft–Walton particle accelerator, and the positron.
== Proton–neutron model of the nucleus ==
Given the problems of the proton–electron model, it was quickly accepted that the atomic nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons, although the precise nature of the neutron was initially unclear. Within months after the discovery of the neutron, Werner Heisenberg and Dmitri Ivanenko had proposed proton–neutron models for the nucleus. Heisenberg's landmark papers approached the description of protons and neutrons in the nucleus through quantum mechanics. While Heisenberg's theory for protons and neutrons in the nucleus was a "major step toward understanding the nucleus as a quantum mechanical system", he still assumed the presence of nuclear electrons. In particular, Heisenberg assumed the neutron was a proton–electron composite, for which there is no quantum mechanical explanation. Heisenberg had no explanation for how lightweight electrons could be bound within the nucleus. Heisenberg introduced the first theory of nuclear exchange forces that bind the nucleons. He considered protons and neutrons to be different quantum states of the same particle, i.e., nucleons distinguished by the value of their nuclear isospin quantum numbers. The proton–neutron model explained the puzzle of dinitrogen. When 14N was proposed to consist of 3 pairs each of protons and neutrons, with an additional unpaired neutron and proton each contributing a spin of 1⁄2 ħ in the same direction for a total spin of 1 ħ, the model became viable. Soon, neutrons were used to naturally explain spin differences in many different nuclides in the same way. If the proton–neutron model for the nucleus resolved many issues, it highlighted the problem of explaining the origins of beta radiation. No existing theory at the time could account for how electrons or positrons could emanate from the nucleus. In 1934, Enrico Fermi published his classic paper describing the process of beta decay, in which the neutron decays to a proton by creating an electron and a (as yet undiscovered) neutrino. The paper employed the analogy that photons, or electromagnetic radiation, were similarly created and destroyed in atomic processes. Ivanenko had suggested a similar analogy in 1932. Fermi's theory requires the neutron to be a spin-1⁄2 particle. The theory preserved the principle of conservation of energy, which had been put into question by the continuous energy distribution of beta particles. The basic theory for beta decay proposed by Fermi was the first to show how particles could be created and destroyed. It established a general, basic theory for the interaction of particles by weak or strong forces. While this influential paper has stood the test of time, the ideas within it were so new that when it was first submitted to the journal Nature in 1933 it was rejected as being too speculative.
== Nature of the neutron ==