On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 9:00 PM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: The nuclear force is very short range.
Here is where I'm inclined to part with conventional wisdom. Consider that 1 barn is the approximate area of a medium-sized nucleus presented to an oncoming neutron, that nuclei such as 135Xe have neutron-capture cross sections of 1e6 barns, and that with a neutron the Coulomb interaction is not involved. It seems to me that the nuclear force must be working at longer distance than the usual 1 fm that is mentioned. Perhaps a more nuanced analysis would show that it works on very fast nuclei at short distances and on slower-moving nuclei at longer distances. Eric
