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• slightly heavier than the proton by 1.29 MeV (otherwise very similar)
• electrically neutral (q/e < 10 -21 !!!)
• spin = ½
• magnetic moment = - 1.91 N (should be zero if pointlike: Dirac)
• unstable, with a lifetime of about 15 minutes: n p e ve
• accounts for a little more than half of all nuclear matter
Recall the nuclear “landscape” from lecture 1: 2
proton number, Z
100
Heavy nuclei,
N>Z
light nuclei
have N Z
neutron number, N
0
0 140
http://www.nscl.msu.edu/future/ria/science/toi.html
Neutron electric form factor: Gen (from elastic electron scattering, etc.) 3
• difficult to measure! no free neutron target ... (compare 1H and 2H, etc...)
• very small contribution to total cross section, since net charge = 0
(magnetic contribution dominates)
• recall the form factor expansion from lecture 8:
q2 r 2
F (q 2 ) 1 i q r (q r ) 2 / 2 ... (r ) d 3 r
6
... for (r ) d 3 r 0 !
Gen(0) = 0
What does negative <r2> mean? 4
r2 r 2 (r ) d 3 r r 2 4 r 2 (r ) dr
• charge density must have both –ve and +ve regions, since net charge = 0
• integral is weighted with r2 more negative charge at large radius
Neutron magnetization distribution: about the same as the proton 5
Neutron
Proton
• the neutron and proton are very similar apart from a small mass difference (0.1%)
and of course the difference in electric charge
• postulate that n,p are two “substates” of a “nucleon”, with “Isospin ½”, by analogy
with ordinary spin s (Heisenberg, 1932)
s
1 1
for spin, S: , s2 s( s 1), s m
2 z s 2
e.g. electron: spin “up” and spin “down” states have different values
of ms, but this is a trivial difference – both are electrons!
T T2
1 1
for Isospin, T: , T (T 1), T m
2 z t 2
these are two “substates” of the nucleon (N) with isospin T = ½ ! (PDG table uses I)
Nucleon states: 7
939.6 mt 1 / 2, neutron
E
(MeV)
938.3 mt 1 / 2, proton
Nucleon, N
• It turns out to be rather a lucky guess that isospin is a symmetry of the strong
interaction: both mt and T are conserved in strong scattering and decay processes.
There is a simple relation between mt and electric charge for all hadrons,
(particles made up of quarks, exhibiting strong interactions...)
Delta: (1232) = (++, +, °, -) T = 3/2 isospin quartet, mt = (3/2, ½, - ½ , -3/2)
electric charge (q/e) = mt + ½ (mass ~ 1232 MeV)
A conserved quantity is the same before and after an interaction takes place, e.g.:
total energy
linear momentum
angular momentum (quantum vector) from classical mechanics
electric charge
parity (exception: weak interaction) quantum mechanics
isospin (strong interaction only)
M p o
“before” “after”
Whether we are adding “spin” or “orbital” or “total” angular momentum (s, l, j), the
same rules apply, so we will use “j” in the formalism here:
Consider: j1 j2 J
• the total angular momentum has quantum number J and z-projection mJ
• an exact prescription is beyond the scope of this course, but it involves writing
the quantum state |J,mJ> as a linear superposition of configurations |j1,m1,j2,m2>:
J , mJ a ( j ,m , j ,m , J,m
m1 , m2
1 1 2 2 J ) j1 , m1 , j2 , m2
(The coefficients a(j1,m1 ...) are just numbers; they are called “Clebsch-Gordon”
coefficients in advanced books on quantum mechanics.)
Application: + p + ° (the quantum numbers have to add up!) 11
p o
“before” “after”
proton: s = ½
pion: s=0 1
L J
2
orbital: L
L 1
Parity: + Parity: proton: +
pion: - ()()(1) L
orbital: (-1)L
Isospin: T = 3/2, mt = ½ Isospin: proton: T = ½, mt = ½ T (3 / 2, 1 / 2)
pion: T = 1, mt = 0 mt 1 / 2
All the conservation laws are observed. Reaction proceeds in the “T=3/2 channel”
Isospin and quarks: 12
There are a total of 6 quarks in the Standard Model (u,d,s,c,t,b – more later!) but
only two play a significant role in nuclear physics: u and d.
Not surprisingly, isospin carries over into the quark description: the “up” quark has
isospin T = ½ “up” and similarly for the “down” quark: