BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

IInd SEMESTER 2016-17 (31/03/2017)

TEST II SOLUTION (OPEN BOOK) MM:60 Weight:20% PHY F343
Instructions: All questions are compulsory. Answer the sub-parts at the same place.

40
Q1. Naturally occurring potassium contains 0.012% of the radioactive isotope K, whose half-life is
1.25 × 109 yrs. [10 marks]

A) Calculate the activity of 1 kg of potassium (in Ci). [4]

SOLUTION:
ln2
λ = = 1.78 × 10−17 s−1 (1)
t1/2
1000g×6.022×1023 atoms/mole
No. of atoms of K40 = 0.012% of 1 kg of K (= 40g/mole
) = 1.8 × 1021 .
Activity (a) = λ× No. of atoms of 40 K

a = 3.21 × 1025 s−1 = 0.86 µCi (2)

B) Estimate the fraction of 40 K to that of the natural potassium when the Earth was born
(4.5 × 109 yrs ago). [6]
−λ t
SOLUTION: Using N = N0 e

N0 = N eλ t ≈ 0.14% (3)

Q2. The first excited state of 57 F e (m(F e) = 56.935 u) decays to the ground state with emission of
14.4 keV photon in a mean life-time of 141 ns. [12 marks]

A) What is the natural width of the excited state? [4]

SOLUTION:
h̄
∆E = ≈ 4.67 × 10−9 eV (4)
τ

B) What is the recoil kinetic energy of an atom of the nuclei. [4]

SOLUTION:
Eγ2
T = ≈ 1.95 × 10−3 eV (5)
2mc2

B) What velocity is required to doppler shift the emitted photon so that resonance occur. [4]
SOLUTION:
∆E
v = c ≈ 0.097mm/s = 3.24 × 10−13 c (6)
E

Q3. The two excited states of a nuclei ‘72 X’, are 2+ and 3− at energies 900 keV and 1600 keV respectively
above the ground state (0+ ). The corresponding half lives are 6 ps and 2 ps. [28 marks]
 A) Tabulate the possible γ−transitions for the nuclei in increasing order of γ− energy and
their order of the multi-poles as well as the corresponding decay constant from the Weisskopf
estimate. [6+6=12]
SOLUTION: The Weisskopf estimates (in s−1 ) for the electric multipoles are (Eγ should be
given in MeV)
λ(E1) = 1014 A2/3 E 3 (7)
λ(E2) = 7.3 × 107 A4/3 E 5 (8)
λ(E3) = 34 A2 E 7 (9)
(10)
Sl No Eγ (keV) Multipole λ (s−1 )
1 700 E1 5.76 × 1014
2 900 E2 1.29 × 1010
3 1600 E3 4.73 × 106
B) Using the experimental half-life values, estimate the total decay constant of the 1600 keV
state. Also calculate the partial decay rates of the same state, assuming that the conver-
sion coefficients are negligible. Given that the relative intensities of Eγ (700): Eγ (1600)=70:26
[4+6=10]
SOLUTION: The total and the partial decay widths are (neglecting the conversion coeffi-
cients)
λt (1600) = 0.693/t1/2 = 3.46 × 1011 s−1 (11)
λ700 = 0.70 × λt = 2.42 × 1011 s−1 (12)
λ1600 = 0.26 × λt = 8.9 × 1010 s−1 (13)
(14)
C) If the conversion coefficient of the transition Eγ = 700 keV be α700 = 0.2, then using the total
decay constant (obtained in part B) above), estimate the conversion coefficient of the other.
[6]
SOLUTION:
λt (1600) = 0.70 × λt (1 + 0.02) + 0.26 × λt (1 + x) (15)
⇒ x = 0.026/0.26 = 0.1 (16)
Q4. Consider the fission process 254 Cf →127 In +127 In. Given the masses (in amu) are m(Cf ) =
254.0873 u and m(In) = 126.9173 u. [10 marks]
A) Calculate the Q−value of the reaction. [4]
SOLUTION:

Q = [m(Cf ) − 2m(In)]c2 (17)

= 235.3M eV (18)
B) Calculate the total useful energy released (in M eV ) from 10g of the fissile material, if on an
average 70% of energy can be extracted. [6]
SOLUTION: The total useful energy
E = 0.70 × Q = 164.71 (19)
254
Number of atoms in 10g of Cf = 2.37 × 1021 atoms
Enet = 390.36 × 1021 M eV = 624.58 × 108 J (20)