Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Calculating beta decays assuming Widom Larsen neutron production

Well, now that I am more familiar with Widom Larsen, let's say we do another one of these calculator exercises, shall we?

We are assuming only neutrons are added to the nickel nucleus, per Widom Larsen theory. If we were using the BECNF theory, we can add protons, but this is not BECNF, so protons need not apply.



add 1 neutron to nickel 58, yields unstable nickel 59 beta decays by electron capture to cobalt 59

add 1 neutron to cobalt 59 yields unstable cobalt 60 beta minus decay to nickel 60 chain stops here
We assume that the chain stops there, for the sake of simplicity.    The chain picks up again at nickel 62
add 1 neutron to nickel 62 yields unstable nickel 63 beta minus decays to copper 63
add 1 neutron to copper 63 yields unstable copper 64 which beta minus decays to zinc 64
That's not the whole story.  It can also beta minus decay by electron capture to
can also beta decay by electron capture to nickel 64
But lets follow the zinc branch before returning to the nickel branch in the pic above
add 1 neutron to zinc 64 yields zinc 65 which beta decays by electron capture to copper 65
Now let's go back and look at the nickel 64 and what happens there
add 1 neutron to nickel 64 yields unstable nickel 65 which beta minus decays to copper 65
The two lines join again at copper 65 for one more reaction before it ends
add 1 neutron to copper 65 yields unstable copper 66 which beta minus decays to zinc 66
One way to check Widom Larsen would be to check for zinc 66.  In fact, you would really want to look at those transmuted reaction products in order to get a feel for what is going on.

Disclaimer:  all this assumes that I've not made a mistake.  This is amateur hour, remember.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Mueller said...

This post took me back to high school when I was in love with chemistry! It's been a long time! :)


♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥

Can Alex save Winter from the darkness that hunts her?

YA Paranormal Romance, Darkspell coming fall of 2011!

Greg said...

Thanks for coming by. You learned this in high school? Wow.