Alpha decay. The tunnel effect.

The alpha decay of the nucleus is an extremely interesting phenomenon. Alpha particle A is a helium nucleus containing two protons and two neutrons. If such a particle is located in some massive core, then it turns out that the forces holding it there far exceed the kinetic energy it possesses and therefore cannot fly out of it. For example, a rocket that has not reached the first space speed of 8 km/sec cannot become an Earth satellite. But in the microcosm, the laws of “other physics” operate, in particular, the so-called tunnel effect. In other words, a particle that does not have enough energy to fly out of the “potential pit” of the nucleus, nevertheless, HAS a certain PROBABILITY of “seeping” through the energy barrier and ending up OUTSIDE this pit, despite the fact that there is not enough strength to fly out of it.

This phenomenon is called the “tunnel effect” in quantum mechanics.

The formula for the PROBABILITY of departure of a particle due to this effect in a power-law indicator also includes the mass of the particle, inversely proportional, that is. the greater the mass, the less likely it is to take off.

And all the Alpha particles fly out.

Now let’s start to reason.

If a particle positively charged (two protons!!!) turns out to be somehow miraculously outside the nucleus, it will, of course, be strongly repelled by this nucleus and must acquire some additional velocity. The seepage paradox is that the ejected Alpha particle HAS NOTICEABLY LESS ENERGY than what it should have “in theory”! Again, if it “miraculously” appeared at the surface of the core “outside”, it should throw it away strongly. And it turns out that it is as if the core did not accelerate at all! Again, let’s forget about what kind of energy she had inside the core. Even if it leaked through the tunnel with some “zero” energy and ended up on the outer surface. Now only repulsive forces are acting on it, and it should acquire some kinetic energy due to this. But, MIRACLES! It seems to be gaining, BUT LESS than is required by calculations if it were electrostatically repelled by the core!

Of course, you can come up with the following answer:

It seeped through the tunnel and ended up on the surface, having a certain reserve of “negative” energy, which absorbs part of the core’s repulsion energy. But the concept of “negative” energy is conditional. All of us, being on the surface of the Earth, have some kind of negative energy, in the sense of comparing the energy we have compared to what we would have if we were hanging somewhere in space, outside the fields of gravity. They were “free” from the influence of gravity!

But once we are already OUTSIDE the Earth’s gravitational field, we CAN no longer HAVE a “reserve of negative” energy. Again, this is a conditional concept used for particles or bodies BOUND by certain forces, but not for particles and bodies FREE from these bonds. This means that an Alpha particle, since it is already OUTSIDE the nucleus, cannot have any “reserve of negative” energy.

Then HOW to explain the FACT OF LIFE, the experimental fact: A particle flies away from the nucleus with an energy less than it should have flown away, having turned out to have zero kinetic energy at its outer surface???

I have just two suggestions:

One thing is to assume that a particle passing through a “tunnel” turns out to be not directly at the surface of the nucleus, but somewhere further away. The tunnel has an “exit” not at the surface of the core, but somewhere at some distance from it and there the field is already weaker according to Coulomb’s law. Therefore, the particle is discarded with less energy.

The second assumption is related to the “device” of the particle. A neutron (and there are two of them in the Alpha particle) is a composite particle of a proton and an electron. An electron has dimensions 12.25 times larger than a proton and a nucleus, therefore it cannot fit in the nucleus, there is nowhere! This means that it is somehow in the form of a large “kidney” or bubble located just outside the core, although very close to it

(See the notes on the two–layer nucleus “The nucleus is God’s dandelion”, and “The neutron is an underdeveloped hydrogen atom”). Then four protons and two electrons make up the Alpha particle. But neutron electrons, due to their physical proximity to the nucleus (the shielding form factor), are strongly attracted to it, so there is a “reserve of negative” energy, and therefore the push of the nucleus is weaker than it would be if it were only two “naked” protons.

The third possibility has already been considered by me. These are the so-called phantom charges of the nucleus. If we assume that they arise in the nucleus as fluctuations of its internal meson field (“condensation-discharge of the field”), then it may turn out that they, these phantom charges, having arisen somewhere near the surface of the nucleus, weakened its binding forces in relation to some Alpha particle that appeared in the same place. and her energy was enough to fly out of the core and manage to move away from it with less energy than is required for this.

These are just assumptions. I just can’t explain this paradox with Alpha particle energies any other way.

Faciant meliora potentes.

6 V 2024

P.S. If we accept the idea of a two-layer nucleus (“The nucleus is God’s dandelion”, “The neutron is an underdeveloped hydrogen atom”), then we can assume that there is no “seeping” of the Alpha particle through the barrier at all and therefore there is no tunneling effect in this case.

AND WHAT happens and HOW???

Neutrons forming a “double electric layer” near the surface of a PURELY proton nucleus directly form the ejected Alpha particle. Four protons with two neutron electrons are ejected from the “neutron layer”: Two protons and two neutrons. The remaining two neutron electrons “pull” two additional protons from the nucleus, and form neutrons with them. The nucleus thus reduces its charge by two positive units, which is observed during Alpha decay.

Such a hypothetical option naturally and simply explains the relatively low energy level of Alpha particles!

14 IX 2024