Alpha Radioactivity

Abstract

The study of alpha-radioactivity has generated many of the fundamental concepts of atomic and nuclear structure. Important discoveries came from both the effort to understand the mechanism of the alpha-emission process and from the observation of events produced by the high velocity particles. In this latter category we should recall that it was from the analysis of large-angle scattering of alpha-particles that Rutherford conceived of the atomic nucleus as the center of mass and positive charge. He also made the fundamental deduction that the subatomic particles bearing the charge within the nucleus must exhibit strong short range attractive force, otherwise the nucleus could not exist. As further examples, the discoveries of nuclear transmutation by Rutherford and of artificial radioactivity by I. Curie and F. Joliot came about from the irradiation of light elements with alpha particles.