CPB Ljubljana 2018 course book

Radioactive Decay

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 1 

0 0

n

p 





0

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

parent

daughter

  Q



1Z

1

e

 



