Properties of Nuclear Forces
Various properties of Nuclear forces are discussed below,
Nuclear Force is the strongest Fundamental Force
The magnitude of the nuclear force between two protons is 100 times Coulomb’s electrostatic repulsive force and 1036 times the gravitational attractive force. The nuclear force is stronger than Coulomb’s repulsive force and is able to keep the protons bound in a very small nucleus.
Nuclear force is Attractive Force
Nuclear force is attractive in nature and the variation of the potential energy of the nucleus with the distance (r) between the nucleons is shown in the figure below,
The graph in the figure reveals Potential energy is released at a distance of ro (≈ 0.8 fm). When the distance between two nucleons is greater than ro, the nuclear forces are attractive. As the distance between them decreases and is smaller than ro this force becomes repulsive and becomes minimum (≈ 0.8 fm) and increases rapidly which avoids the collapsing of the nucleus.
Nuclear Force is Charge Independent
The interaction between two nucleons is independent of whether one or both nucleons have a charge on them. In other words, the nuclear force between Proton-Proton (p-p)proton-neutron (p-n), and neutron-neutron (n-n)is the same, so these forces are charge independent.
Nuclear Force is Short-Range Force
The nuclear forces between two nucleons exist only when the distance between nucleons is comparable to the size of the nucleus i.e. of the order of 10-15. These forces cease to act as the distance between two nucleons exceeds 10-15. Moreover, a nucleon can interact with only its neighboring nucleons just as an atom in solid form bonds only with the surrounding atoms. Thus, these forces are short-range forces.
Nuclear Force is Exchange Force
Nuclear forces are due to the exchange of π mesons between the nucleons, so they are called exchange forces. The force between two nucleons does not act along the line joining their centers and is therefore called non-Central force.
Nuclear force is Spin-Dependent
It has been observed that the nuclear force between nucleons having parallel spins is greater than the force between nucleons having anti-parallel spins. Thus they are spin-dependent.
Nuclear Force
Nuclear forces, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force are two of the four fundamental forces of nature other than electromagnetic and gravitational forces. Unlike Coulomb’s Law or Newton’s Law of Gravitation, there is no simple mathematical way to describe nuclear forces. Nuclear forces are one of the strongest forces of nature.
According to the standard model nuclear forces arise due to the exchange of gluons. Since nucleons are made up of quarks, i.e., neutron (udd) and proton (uud), where u and d denote up and down quarks, respectively. The exchange of quarks between the neutron and proton keeps them intact inside the nucleus.