Neutron Capture At Small Neutron Flux
At small neutron flux, as in a nuclear reactor, a single neutron is captured by a nucleus. For example, when natural gold (197Au) is irradiated by neutrons, the isotope 198Au is formed in a highly excited state, and quickly decays to the ground state of 198Au by the emission of γ rays. In this process, the mass number increases by one. This is written as a formula in the form 197Au+n → 198Au+γ, or in short form 197Au(n,γ)198Au. If thermal neutrons are used, the process is called thermal capture.
The isotope 198Au is a beta emitter that decays into the mercury isotope 198Hg. In this process the atomic number rises by one.
Read more about this topic: Neutron Capture
Famous quotes containing the words capture, small and/or flux:
“To capture robbers, first capture their leader.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Thirty-five years ago, when I was a college student, people wrote letters. The businessman who read, the lawyer who traveled; the dressmaker in evening school, my unhappy mother, our expectant neighbor: all conducted an often large and varied correspondence. It was the accustomed way of ordinarily educated people to occupy the world beyond their own small and immediate lives.”
—Vivian Gornick (b. 1935)
“No civilization ... would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)