Radioactivity - Beta Decay, Nuclear Reactions, Radiation

radioactivity

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Figure 4: The decay of a particle of mass M into two particles the sum of whose rest masses is less than M (see text).

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The processes separately introduced at the beginning of this section as beta-minus decay, beta-plus decay, and orbital electron capture can be appropriately treated together. They all are processes whereby neutrons and protons may transform to one another by weak interaction. In striking contrast to alpha decay, the electrons (minus or plus charged) emitted in beta-minus and beta-plus decay do not exhibit sharp, discrete energy spectra but have distributions of electron energies ranging from zero up to the maximum energy release, Q_β. Furthermore, measurements of heat released by beta emitters (most radiation stopped in surrounding material is converted into heat ...(100 of 9896 words)

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