CPB Budapest 2017

Radioactive Decay

β -

β - decay

Unstable nuclides having an excessive number of neutrons in comparison to protons tend to reduce their number of neutrons by undergoing β- decay where the basic transformation process is:

1

1 1

0

0 0

p n ν+β + ⇒

+

−

0

1

e

According to this in the β - decay the atomic number of the nucleus is increased by 1 and the number of neutrons in the nucleus is decreased by 1, where the mass number remains unchanged. Thus β - decay is in contrast to alpha decay an isobaric nuclei transformation . The β - general disintegration scheme is shown in the following equation:

A Z

A

0

0 0

⇒

+ν+β + Q

parent

daughter

+

−

− β

1Z

1

e