Discovery of the Neutron

It is remarkable that the neutron was not discovered until 1932 when James Chadwick
used scattering data to calculate the mass of this neutral particle. Since the time
of Rutherford it had been known that the atomic mass number A of nuclei is a bit
more than twice the atomic number Z for most atoms and that essentially all the mass
of the atom is concentrated in the relatively tiny nucleus. As of about 1930 it was
presumed that the fundamental particles were protons and electrons, but that required
that somehow a number of electrons were bound in the nucleus to partially cancel the
charge of A protons. But by this time it was known from the uncertainty principle and
from "particle-in-a-box" type confinement calculations that there just wasn't enough
energy available to contain electrons in the nucleus.
A rough scale of the energy required for the confinement of a particle to a given
dimension can be obtained by setting the DeBroglie wavelength of the particle equal
to that dimension. For example, if we presume that the dimension of a hydrogen atom
is about 0.2 nm, then the corresponding confinement energy is about 38 eV, the
correct order of magnitude for atomic electrons. But to confine an electron to a
nuclear dimension of about 5 fermis requires an energy of about 250 MeV. The
maximum available confinement energy from the electrical attraction to the nucleus is
given by
Electrostatic
potential energy

So it is clear that there are no electrons in the nucleus.

An experimental breakthrough came in 1930 with the observation by Bothe and
Becker that bombardment of beryllium with alpha particles from a radioactive source
produced neutral radiation which was penetrating but non-ionizing. They presumed it
was gamma rays, but Curie and Joliot showed that when you bombarded a paraffin
target with this radiation, it ejected protons with energy about 5.3 MeV. This proved to
be inconsistent with gamma rays, as can be shown from momentum and energy
analysis:

This analysis follows that for a headon elastic collision where a small particle strikes a
much more massive one. Again, the necessary energy for the gamma ray explanation
was much greater than any energy observed to be available from the nucleus, so the
neutral radiation must be some kind of neutral particle.
The 5.3 MeV energy of the ejected protons could be easily explained if the neutral
particle had a mass comparable to that of the proton. For headon collisions, this would
require only 5.3 MeV from the neutral particle, a value in the range of observed
nuclear particle emissions.
Chadwick was able to prove that the neutral particle
could not be a photon by bombarding targets other than
hydrogen, including nitrogen, oxygen, helium and
argon. Not only were these inconsistent with photon
emission on energy grounds, the cross-section for the
interactions was orders of magnitude greater than that
for Compton scattering by photons.

The task which remained for Chadwick was that of determining the mass of the
neutral particle. He chose to bombard boron with alpha particles and analyze the
interaction of the neutral particles with nitrogen. These particlular targets were chosen
partly because the masses of boron and nitrogen were well known. Conservation of
energy applied to the combined interactions gives the following expressions:

Solving for the mass energy of the neutron gives

The remaining unknown on the right hand side of the equation is the speed of the

opposite direction to that of the exciting -particle appear to have a much smaller
range than those ejected by the forward radiation. This again receives a simple
explanation of the neutron hypothesis.
If it be supposed that the radiation consists of quanta, then the capture of the particle by the Be9 nucleus will form a C13 nucleus. The mass defect of C13 is known
with sufficient accuracy to show that the energy of the quantum emitted in this
process cannot be greater than about 14 x 10 6 volts. It is difficult to make such a
quantum responsible for the effects observed.
It is to be expected that many of the effects of a neutron in passing through matter
should resemble those of a quantum of high energy, and it is not easy to reach the final
decision between the two hypotheses. Up to the present, all the evidence is in favour
of the neutron, while the quantum hypothesis can only be upheld if the conservation
of energy and momentum be relinquished at some point.
J. Chadwick.
Cavendish Laboratory,
Cambridge, Feb. 17.

Sir James Chadwicks Discovery of Neutrons

Posted on October 19, 2011 by ansnuclearcafe

By Paul Bowersox

Sir James Chadwick, born 120 years ago on October

20, 1891, made one of the most significant discoveries of our age by proving the
existence of neutrons.

Chadwick

The September installment of Nuclear Pioneers explored the artificial

radioactivity research of Irne and Frdric Joliot-Curie, for which they were
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on December 10, 1935. A
misinterpretation of data perhaps cost the Joliot-Curies an earlier Nobel Prize,
but instead led to James Chadwick taking the Nobel podium two days after the
Joliot-Curies, on December 12, 1935, to receive the Nobel Prize in physics for
discovering the neutron.
Atomic Mass Mystery
When Ernest Rutherford discovered the proton in 1918, scientists at the time
might have thought that they had finally figured out atomic structure once and
for all. Negatively-charged electrons, orbiting a tiny atomic nucleus composed of
positively-charged protons, like a miniature solar systemthis model explained
atoms being electrically neutral, using only protons and electrons, the two
fundamental atomic particles known at the time.
However, it was also well-known that atomic mass is generally twice the atomic
number (i.e., the number of protons), and that almost all the mass of an atom is
concentrated in the nucleus. What could account for all this additional
mysterious mass?
Nuclear Electrons?
The theory at the time was that there were nuclear electrons in the atomic
nucleus, along with additional protons. The extra protons were thought to
provide the extra atomic mass, while the additional electrons would cancel out

their positive charge, leaving the atom electrically neutral. Eventually, however,
calculations using Heisenbergs uncertainty principle showed it was not possible
for electrons to be contained in the nucleus.

Rutherford

There were other ideas. Ernest Rutherford in 1921 postulated a particle called
the neutron, having a similar mass as a proton but electrically neutral.
Rutherford imagined a paired proton and electron somehow joined in one
particle. One major problem with Rutherfords neutron theorynot much
evidence.
Mysterious Gamma Radiation
Evidence was difficult to come by. Such a neutron would prove difficult to
detect with 1920s equipment. Detection methods of that day mainly relied on
the electrical charges of particles revealing their presencebut neutrons, having
no electrical charge, would leave no trace.
In 1930, the physicists Walther Bothe and Herbert Becker bombarded beryllium
with alpha particles (helium nuclei) emitted from the radioactive element
polonium, and they found that the beryllium gave off an unusual, electrically
neutral radiation. They interpreted this radiation to be high-energy gamma rays
(photons).

However, this radiation was more penetrating than any gamma radiation known.
In 1932, Irne and Frdric Joliot-Curie performed experiments with this

radiation, and showed that if it fell on paraffin or other hydrogen-containing

compound, it could eject protons with very high energy from that substance.
The Compton Effect
The Joliot-Curie radiation discovery was amazing, because photons have no
mass. It was asking quite a lot for a massless particle to eject relatively heavy
protons. It was well known that photons could strike a metal surface and
eject electrons (as occurs in the then-recently-discovered Compton
Effect, proving the particle nature of light) and the Joliot-Curies believed
something similar was happening in their experiments.
But protons are 1,836 times heavier than electronsand that much harder to
budge. Nevertheless, the Joliot-Curies stuck to their interpretation that highenergy photons were striking the hydrogen atoms in paraffin to eject protons.
How to Detect a Neutron
James Chadwick was working at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge at that
time. The lab was directed by Ernest Rutherford, and reportedly when Chadwick
relayed the Joliot-Curie results and interpretation to Rutherford, he exclaimed I
do not believe it!
Chadwick himself was certainly suspicious. He immediately repeated the
experiments, using many different elements as radiation targets besides
paraffin. By comparing the energies of particles ejected from all these various
targets, Chadwick was able to prove that the radiation causing the ejected
particles was much more energetic than could be accounted for by photons.
Instead, the range and power of the radiation could be accounted for quite
easily if it consisted of particles having the same mass as protons. What really
occurred when one bombarded beryllium with alpha particles, Chadwick
explained, was the formation of a carbon-12 nucleus and the emission of a
neutron. Formation of a carbon-13 nucleus with the emission of a photon, as the
Joliot-Curies had postulated, could not provide sufficient energy for the
scattering pattern and energies of ejected particles from Chadwicks various

targets.

Why Neutrons?
Neutrons are necessary within an atomic nucleus because they bind with
protons via the strong nuclear force; protons are unable to bind with each
other directly because their mutual electromagnetic repulsion is stronger than
the strong force. Neutrons keep the atomic nucleus from flying apart, one of
the features that allows for atoms heavier than hydrogen, thus making our
universe much more interesting than one would otherwise expect.
Implications
Its hard to imagine a more momentous event than Chadwicks discovery of
neutrons. Radiation experiments at that time used helium nuclei, which are
electrically charged and therefore repelled by electrical forces. These electrical
forces become quite considerable close to the nuclei of heavier atoms, which
are loaded with many protons (and neutrons). However, neutrons do not need to
overcome any electrical barrier to penetrate (and split) the nucleus of even the
heaviest, most-proton-charged atomic nucleus. After Chadwicks discovery, it
was soon postulated that neutrons could mediate a nuclear chain reaction,
which eventually led to the atomic bomb, and later to nuclear power production.
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