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Question
What is alpha decay?
Solution
The parent nucleus emits an alpha particle which is the nucleus of helium atom. The parent nucleus thus loses two protons and two neutrons. The decay can be expressed as
\[\ce{^A_ZX -> ^{A - 4}_{Z - 2}Y + \alpha}\]
X is the parent nucleus and Y is the daughter nucleus. All nuclei with A > 210 undergo alpha decay.
The reason is that these nuclei have a large number of protons. The electrostatic repulsion between them is very large and the attractive nuclear forces between the nucleons are not able to cope with it. This makes the nucleus unstable and it tries to reduce the number of its protons by ejecting them in the form of alpha particles.
The total mass of the products of alpha decay is always less than the mass of the parent atom. The difference in the energy equivalent of the mass of the parent atom and that of the sum of masses of the products is called the Q-value, Q, of the decay and is equal to the kinetic energy of the products. We can write,
Q = [mX - mY - mHe]c2
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