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:
“Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)
“By the by, who ever knew a man who never read or wrote neither who hadnt got some small back parlour which he would call a study!”
—Charles Dickens (18121870)
“Death not merely ends life, it also bestows upon it a silent completeness, snatched from the hazardous flux to which all things human are subject.”
—Hannah Arendt (19061975)