Fundamental State of Nuclear α-Particles

Abstract

IT is known that γ-rays accompanying α-disintegration are due to the fact that an α-particle can escape from the nucleus with energy less than corresponds to the fundamental level, leaving the resultant nucleus in an excited state¹. The relative intensities of these ‘fine-structure’ groups are given by the transparency of the potential barrier for corresponding energies E(α_n): where j is the azimuthal quantum number of the escaping a -particle. These intensities must rapidly decrease with energy and will be still further reduced in cases when j is not zero in the excited states ; it can be calculated from (1) that this reduction will be respectively 1–3, 4, 16 and 105 times for j = l, 2, 3, 4. Thus we come to the conclusion that, in cases where, for normal decay, the a -particle has j = 0, the slow groups of fine-structure will be very weak.