The scattering of alpha particles in helium, hydrogen and deuterium

Abstract

The study of the scattering of α-particles is now a familiar method of finding the fields of force of light nuclei, because the inverse square law of repulsion breaks down at distances to which α-particles are able to approach them. It has been shown how wave mechanics may be applied to the interpretation of experimental data in terms of an interaction potential between the nuclei which deviates from the Coulomb value at separations of the order 3 × 10 -13 cm. This study is valuable, for with knowledge about the simplest particles one may more easily approach the difficult problem of the structure and stability of the heavier nuclei. The previous experimental work on the scattering of α-particles in helium by Rutherford and Chadwick (1927), and by Chadwick (1930), and in hydrogen by Chadwick and Bieler (1921) cannot be regarded as sufficiently precise, and for deuterium we have only the preliminary experiments of Rutherford and Kempton (1934), and of Pollard and Margenau (1935). Wright’s (1932) results for helium are more definite, but even they do not complete the desired information for the slower α-particles. For hydrogen and deuterium no means were used to obtain accurate absolute values.