Coulomb excitation
Encyclopedia
Coulomb excitation is a technique in experimental nuclear physics to probe the electromagnetic aspect of nuclear structure
. In coulomb excitation, a nucleus
is excited by an inelastic collision
with another nucleus through the electromagnetic interaction. In order to ensure that the interaction is electromagnetic in nature — and not nuclear — a "safe" scattering angle is chosen.
This method is particularly useful for investigating collectivity in nuclei, as collective excitations are often connected by electric quadrupole transitions.
Nuclear structure
Understanding the structure of the atomic nucleus is one of the central challenges in nuclear physics. This article is written from a nuclear physics perspective; as such, it is suggested that a casual reader first read the main nuclear physics article....
. In coulomb excitation, a nucleus
Atomic nucleus
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...
is excited by an inelastic collision
Inelastic collision
An inelastic collision, in contrast to an elastic collision, is a collision in which kinetic energy is not conserved.In collisions of macroscopic bodies, some kinetic energy is turned into vibrational energy of the atoms, causing a heating effect, and the bodies are deformed.The molecules of a gas...
with another nucleus through the electromagnetic interaction. In order to ensure that the interaction is electromagnetic in nature — and not nuclear — a "safe" scattering angle is chosen.
This method is particularly useful for investigating collectivity in nuclei, as collective excitations are often connected by electric quadrupole transitions.