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Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This difference in mass arises as a result of the difference in nuclear binding energy between the atomic nuclei before and after the fusion reaction. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers all active stars, via many reaction pathways.
Fusion processes require an extremely large triple product of temperature, density, and confinement time. These conditions occur only in stellar cores, advanced nuclear weapons, and are approached in fusion power experiments.
A nuclear fusion process that produces atomic nuclei lighter than nickel-62 is generally exothermic, due to the positive gradient of the nuclear binding energy curve. The most fusible nuclei are among the lightest, especially deuterium, tritium, and helium-3. The opposite process, nuclear fission, is most energetic for very heavy nuclei, especially the actinides.
Applications of fusion include fusion power, thermonuclear weapons, boosted fission weapons, neutron sources, and superheavy element production.
American chemist William Draper Harkins was the first to propose the concept of nuclear fusion in 1915. Francis William Aston's 1919 invention of the mass spectrometer allowed the discovery that four hydrogen atoms are heavier than one helium atom. Thus in 1920, Arthur Eddington correctly predicted fusion of hydrogen into helium could be the primary source of stellar energy.
Quantum tunneling was discovered by Friedrich Hund in 1927, with relation to electron levels. In 1928, George Gamow was the first to apply tunneling to the nucleus, first to alpha decay, then to fusion as an inverse process. From this, in 1929, Robert Atkinson and Fritz Houtermans made the first estimates for stellar fusion rates.
In 1938, Hans Bethe worked with Charles Critchfield to enumerate the proton–proton chain that dominates Sun-type stars. In 1939, Bethe published the discovery of the CNO cycle common to higher-mass stars.
During the 1920s, Patrick Blackett made the first conclusive experiments in artificial nuclear transmutation at the Cavendish Laboratory. There, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton built their generator on the inspiration of Gamow's paper. In April 1932, they published experiments on the reaction:
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Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This difference in mass arises as a result of the difference in nuclear binding energy between the atomic nuclei before and after the fusion reaction. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers all active stars, via many reaction pathways.
Fusion processes require an extremely large triple product of temperature, density, and confinement time. These conditions occur only in stellar cores, advanced nuclear weapons, and are approached in fusion power experiments.
A nuclear fusion process that produces atomic nuclei lighter than nickel-62 is generally exothermic, due to the positive gradient of the nuclear binding energy curve. The most fusible nuclei are among the lightest, especially deuterium, tritium, and helium-3. The opposite process, nuclear fission, is most energetic for very heavy nuclei, especially the actinides.
Applications of fusion include fusion power, thermonuclear weapons, boosted fission weapons, neutron sources, and superheavy element production.
American chemist William Draper Harkins was the first to propose the concept of nuclear fusion in 1915. Francis William Aston's 1919 invention of the mass spectrometer allowed the discovery that four hydrogen atoms are heavier than one helium atom. Thus in 1920, Arthur Eddington correctly predicted fusion of hydrogen into helium could be the primary source of stellar energy.
Quantum tunneling was discovered by Friedrich Hund in 1927, with relation to electron levels. In 1928, George Gamow was the first to apply tunneling to the nucleus, first to alpha decay, then to fusion as an inverse process. From this, in 1929, Robert Atkinson and Fritz Houtermans made the first estimates for stellar fusion rates.
In 1938, Hans Bethe worked with Charles Critchfield to enumerate the proton–proton chain that dominates Sun-type stars. In 1939, Bethe published the discovery of the CNO cycle common to higher-mass stars.
During the 1920s, Patrick Blackett made the first conclusive experiments in artificial nuclear transmutation at the Cavendish Laboratory. There, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton built their generator on the inspiration of Gamow's paper. In April 1932, they published experiments on the reaction: