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In the shell model for the nucleus, magic numbers are the numbers of nucleons at which a shell is filled. For instance, the magic number 8 occurs when the 1s 1/2 , 1p 3/2 , 1p 1/2 energy levels are filled, as there is a large energy gap between the 1p 1/2 and the next highest 1d 5/2 energy levels.
Some semi-magic numbers have been found, notably Z = 40, which gives the nuclear shell filling for the various elements; 16 may also be a magic number. [3] To get these numbers, the nuclear shell model starts with an average potential with a shape somewhere between the square well and the harmonic oscillator. To this potential, a spin-orbit ...
The numbers of nucleons for which shells are filled are called magic numbers. Magic numbers of 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126 have been observed for neutrons, and the next number is predicted to be 184. [6] [27] Protons share the first six of these magic numbers, [28] and 126 has been predicted as a magic proton number since the 1940s. [29]
The liquid drop model is one of the first models of nuclear structure, proposed by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in 1935. [5] It describes the nucleus as a semiclassical fluid made up of neutrons and protons, with an internal repulsive electrostatic force proportional to the number of protons.
[39] [40] Her model explained why certain numbers of nucleons in an atomic nucleus result in particularly stable configurations. These numbers are what Eugene Wigner called magic numbers: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126. In an account relayed by Joe Mayer, Maria Goppert Mayer attained a critical insight while speaking with Enrico Fermi.
The concept of magic numbers in the field of chemistry refers to a specific property (such as stability) for only certain representatives among a distribution of structures. It was first recognized by inspecting the intensity of mass-spectrometric signals of rare gas cluster ions. [ 1 ]
The formula gives a good approximation for atomic masses and thereby other effects. However, it fails to explain the existence of lines of greater binding energy at certain numbers of protons and neutrons. These numbers, known as magic numbers, are the foundation of the nuclear shell model.
Woods–Saxon potential for A = 50, relative to V 0 with a = 0.5 fm and =. The Woods–Saxon potential is a mean field potential for the nucleons (protons and neutrons) inside the atomic nucleus, which is used to describe approximately the forces applied on each nucleon, in the nuclear shell model for the structure of the nucleus.